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New Windcheetah on the way
Lighter, with ceramic-lined drum brakes...and out in September.
Details at last of something I've known about for a while but couldn't reveal: significant changes to the Windcheetah recumbent trike are in the offing. Bob Dixon of AVD just released the news on the Trikes mailing list. The Mike referred to is of course the Windcheetah's original designer Mike Burrows:
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...I can exclusively reveal that yet another Windcheetah derivative is about to hit the streets... The new Windcheetah, which looks superficially similar to the old one, is actually quite different.
Mike designed it about 6 months ago and we have been doing various tests and modifications to get it ready for sale. It will be produced alongside the current ClubSport and SuperSport models, and will be known as the HyperSport.
The official launch will be at the Friedrichschafen show in August, to coincide with the European HPV Championships.
The main areas of interest are the significantly lighter frame [about 12%], achieved by using completely redesigned castings and a carbon fibre front boom, a radical ceramic lined drum brake featuring straight pull radial spokes on the outside and tangential straight pull spokes on the inside, and a unique carbon fibre leaf spring system for the seat. The price has yet to be confirmed, but it will be approx 30% higher than the current SuperSport. Weight will be sub 30lb.
We were fortunate to get a design grant from the government to carry out the R&D;, which made it possible to explore the ceramic brake option. Under normal circumstances this would have been prohibitively expensive to research. These brakes are extremely powerful and yet very light......
I will release further information to the list prior to the official launch.
Please form an orderly queue and no pushing at the back!
Bob Dixon
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Posted on 10 July 2003
Your comments ...| From: Ralf Grosser ([email protected]) on 11 July 2003 |
Great to hear that the presentation will be in Friedrichshafen.
I hope that Mike Burrows will be there.
I still need him to sign my sample of his book "Bicycle Design".
Oh, I just realised, he all so wrote the forward to "Its in the Bag" by Thony Hadland and the late John Pinkerton.
Ralf Grosser |
| From: . (.) on 11 July 2003 |
| It's odd to think that come Septemeber we'll have to get used to the notion of the standard Speedy being cheap. |
| From: Steven Brandist (email) on 11 July 2003 |
| I wish everyone would stop going about Mike, hes not some kind of bike god you know. Its all getting a bit boring. I've even heard some saying that certain bikes hes produced lately (no names) aren't the pleasures to own and ride that you'd think they were. |
| From: Ralf Grosser ([email protected]) on 11 July 2003 |
I agree Mike Burrows is not God.
Alex Moulton is!
No just joking.
But anyone who enjoys innovative bike design, does enjoy what both have contributed to the world of cycling.
I don’t own a Burrows designed Bike, but as a mechanic myself I am quite intrigued by the solutions he has come up with in his designs.
Also Mike Burrows has written (With Tony Hadland) the best book in twenty years about how bikes work.
The previous best book on the subject being “Bicycling Science “ by David Gorden Wilson and Frank Rowland Whitt!
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| From: Seamus ([email protected]) on 12 July 2003 |
The correct reverential term for Mr(though why it isn't Sir I'll never know) Burrows is....
Almost-God-Like-Cycling-Design-Genius.
For those who consider not, have a look at the Cycling Science in Byke Kultuur 15 at...
http://uk.geocities.com/seamustuff/issue15.html
p.s. I've aquired more free webspace and have actually started to write BKN 18. Also the Films site is improved with achor tags to make it easire to navigate. Oh and I've got hardening of the arteries in my right leg which makes walking and cycling painful and I've given up alcohol, ice-cream, cakes etc. |
| From: Ralf Grosser ([email protected]) on 12 July 2003 |
I just had a look at Mike (Design God) Burrows Book.
Some of the charts in it he used with promission from Bicycle Science |
| From: Steven Brandist (email) on 13 July 2003 |
| Oh dear what have I started. |
| From: Peter Eland ([email protected]) on 14 July 2003 |
| A less than nice comment deleted. |
| From: Seamus ([email protected]) on 15 July 2003 |
Wow! Site moderator in action.
So, you going to Spokesfest then?
When's Spokesfest getting it's own news item on here? |
| From: Peter Eland ([email protected]) on 15 July 2003 |
| Yup, will be at Spokesfest Sat and Sun. Prob camping Sat night. Will do a story shortly... |
| From: S. (etc) on 15 July 2003 |
The usual suspects then.
Jase'll be there after he finishes the CoC thing at Rencomb. |
| From: andy scaife ([email protected]) on 15 July 2003 |
| Regarding the comments about Burrows bikes. Do any of the detractors actually own any? It's a bit like the Lotus Elan in classic car circles, a guaranteed bull***t generator. Both the current bikes, (Ratty and 8Freight) are super designs, fantastically executed (but no, not flawless) which need to be ridden for some time to be properly appreciated, because they are understated (OK, apart from those 'orrible 'Dennis-the-Menace' seat covers). The 8Freight certainly is like no other machine, and should not, as the media do, be compared with big clunky delivery bikes. It's more equivalent to the sporty family pick-up trucks that American rednecks drive. I've got my order in after having had a few spins on Cyclone Couriers early model. And yes, Ralf, Moultons are great, we all know that. Your comments made me take the F-frame and spaceframe out for comparison rides today, and I'd be very surprised if the Bridgestone is better than the spaceframe with which it should be compared. |
| From: Ralf Grosser (Buzz Starkbier) on 15 July 2003 |
The Bridgestone Moulton is not as good as for example an NS Moulton.
I would rate it a bit below my AM 14 but a bit sportier then an APB.
Best bike for value if you buy a new Moulton, is in my opinion, the APB 8.
Ralf Grosser |
| From: Ralf Grosser ([email protected]) on 15 July 2003 |
Latest news Mike ("His Cycellency")Burrows will not be in Fiedrichshafen.
Ralf
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| From: matt_fantastic ([email protected]) on 16 July 2003 |
| still drum brakes - i saw a pic of bob riding one with hope discs in an old recumbentUK - when can i get one of THOSE...? |
| From: andy scaife ([email protected]) on 16 July 2003 |
Yes, it does seem a bit pointless, doing all this research (much as I like the idea of little-middle-englander's taxes being used for cycle research!)when Hope, Magura et al have already left the design behind. How many motorcycles and cars do you know of with drum brakes nowadays? (OK, except American cars, but they always were a bit behind).
I've always had an ethical leaning towards the other great British trike builder, rather than AVD, ever since I noticed AVD sponsorship at a car racing event on TV. I'd rather see my hard-earned go towards rural regeneration and manufacturing jobs in Cornwall than helping a load of rich blokes burn more fuel and rubber. |
| From: andy scaife ([email protected]) on 16 July 2003 |
| By the way Ralf, at last I agree with you! The FX8 is a great piece of kit, and priced below many rivals, both small-wheel and conventional. For 95% of us, price DOES matter! But we're not talking about Moultons on this bit are we...sorry...carry on. |
| From: gNick ([email protected]) on 16 July 2003 |
Was it AVD sponsorship or was it their entry in the Goodwood Soap Box event? If money is required to do research surely sponsorship is unlikely?
I can think of one reason not to use disks. a shortage of mass to sdtore the energy of braking. I ssem to recall that a lot of the streamliners over in Battle Mountain last year had fade problems with the disks but the Mango didn't with drum brakes. Yes I know that drums fade as well but it will take longer to happen.
You don't need the extra stopping power, the drums on my speedy will dig the chainset into the road so I'm not sure I want any more power!
And finally
MikeB is hardly God but he has designed a lot of bikes. Some of these were good, (Speedy, Ratcatcher, Ratracer, Freight8,Giant compacts, Windcheetah track bike aka Lotus et al.) some never made it like the monocoque shopper (good though it was) and then there are the best avoided like the San Andreas off road bike that didn't. How many bikes has Dr. Moulton done?
I am not in the employ of Burrows Engineering and I don't approve of his hairstyle. |
| From: Ralf Grosser ([email protected]) on 16 July 2003 |
Get Mike Burrows a haircut, and get him a real Job!
Well sorry but I am lost what this has to do with his bikes. |
| From: Ian Oliver ([email protected]) on 17 July 2003 |
| I should just like to record my praise of the Windcheetah having completed 1340 miles of the North Sea Cycle Route. From Kent we travelled to Lelystad via Harwich/Hook for the fantastic yearly recumbent event and then followed the NSR through Holland-Germany and Denmark returning Esjberg/Harwich. The Windcheetah ran perfectly the whole trip with rear carrier taking 15 kg of panniers and tent - it really is a comfortable well designed minimal machine. |
| From: Span Tally ([email protected]) on 17 July 2003 |
| It is perhaps worth noting that Mr. M. Burrows is almost, but not quite, completely without clue when it comes to recumbent seats. There seems to be only one person who gets on with Mr. M. Burrows' recumbent seats, and that is Mr. M. Burrows. Witness the amount of extra foam upon the RatRacer of Mr. N. Fleming, hear the piteous cries of Ms. D. Wilson - "Oi, Burrows, I wanna to to you about me bum" - and listen to Mr. J-P de Matos complaining of a sore tail some twenty miles from teh end of the Dunwich Dynamo. |
| From: gNick ([email protected]) on 17 July 2003 |
I've had no problem with the Speedy seat so...
I do recall Mike telling me (or was that lecturing?) about how he put padding on his Speedy seat which comprised of various layers of neoprene padding where required.
Given that there is no universally acceptable seat for upright bikes it is hardly a surprise that a single recumbent seat doesn't suit all. |
| From: murph ([email protected]) on 20 July 2003 |
Nothing wrong with Mike's seats. Well apart from the fact that they are invariably mounted too far from the pedals (I have short legs).
Now the original Ross fibreglass seat - that was bad... |
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