Mike Burrows
- Thread starter ChromeChainstay
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vtwinvince
Senior Retro Guru
Very cool indeed, that's some stellar fabrication work.
Frankenorange
Orange 🍊 Fan
I remember that QED . That bike really was something and it was a great period for crazy bikes in TT's and on the track. It is funny to watch his legs spinning around compared to the enormous gears they use now.
Even with all the experiments and wind tunnel time they all still assumed what was best to do with the hands and arms. Nobody thought to try the hands higher up ,to break the air in front of the rider, which is now proven to be the most aero.
High divers were already doing this to break water to allow a smoother entry into water, for the rest of the body, yet Boardmann and others advanced to the 'Superman' position which has since been proven to be rubbish compared to high hands.
Don't get me wrong. It was better than what had come before but couldve been EVEN better for almost zero outlay. Just needed a bit more thinking outside the box.
Even with all the experiments and wind tunnel time they all still assumed what was best to do with the hands and arms. Nobody thought to try the hands higher up ,to break the air in front of the rider, which is now proven to be the most aero.
High divers were already doing this to break water to allow a smoother entry into water, for the rest of the body, yet Boardmann and others advanced to the 'Superman' position which has since been proven to be rubbish compared to high hands.
Don't get me wrong. It was better than what had come before but couldve been EVEN better for almost zero outlay. Just needed a bit more thinking outside the box.
Canuk
Old School Grand Master
This East German Textima from 1979 was contemporary to Mike's creations, who knows whether they were designed independently or if he was aware of the strategies of the DDR builders. They certainly knew how to get very low, by doing away with a traditional stem and mounting the bars directly onto the fork crown. A lot of aerodynamic bang for not a lot of bucks.
There are about half a dozen varieties of this road going Textima, most of the examples are on Pedalroom, there are also a few in the private collection of TT bikes near Zaragoza Spain.
I was lucky enough to handle this very bike in the metal before it went back to the museum in Germany and it had a dozen or so features unique. Notably the hand made canti brakes mounted behind the forks, brake cable routed through the top tube/modified Campagnolo seat post and out via a tube to the rear brake with no outer cable. The routing of the gear cables was equally bizarre.
For those who are lucky enough to visit the museum it's in the town of Chemnitz, South of Berlin near the old border to the DDR. Here's the link:
https://fahrzeugmuseum-chemnitz.de/neuigkeiten/mehr-textima-im-radschlag/
There are about half a dozen varieties of this road going Textima, most of the examples are on Pedalroom, there are also a few in the private collection of TT bikes near Zaragoza Spain.
I was lucky enough to handle this very bike in the metal before it went back to the museum in Germany and it had a dozen or so features unique. Notably the hand made canti brakes mounted behind the forks, brake cable routed through the top tube/modified Campagnolo seat post and out via a tube to the rear brake with no outer cable. The routing of the gear cables was equally bizarre.
For those who are lucky enough to visit the museum it's in the town of Chemnitz, South of Berlin near the old border to the DDR. Here's the link:
https://fahrzeugmuseum-chemnitz.de/neuigkeiten/mehr-textima-im-radschlag/
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