Bicycle Design
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I was astonished to see Mike evince a remarkable new quality: a talent for diplomacy. Mike is a gentle and generous soul (unless crossed on a race track), but he is noted for the vigour of his thoughts and curiosity, and for not mincing words. At Giant, a virtual United Nations of people from many different countries and cultures, Mike was effectively a multilingual translator, not of languages, but of ideas. Mike was able to bridge enormous gaps between people in sales and marketing, and those responsible for manufacturing. As an engineer he understood the problems of product design and engineering very well, and as a child of the western bicycle renaissance and enthusiastic rider of every kind of cycle from delivery bikes to mountain bikes to HPVs, he had a keen, accurate sense of the marketing side. The dynamics of a large firm, especially one seriously bent on the objective of building better bicycles, are fascinating. A master frame builder is an artisan and a wonder, but in mass manufacture, a remarkable number and variety of things each have to be right in and of themselves, and as well, all smoothly co-ordinated together. In establishing premier mountain bike and road racing teams and going for the gold in terms of consumer recognition and acceptance, Giant set extremely high goals. Many individuals and processes at Giant were involved in the changes, and as the teething problems settled down and lines of communication opened up, exciting things began to happen. Giant has the size and resources for working with materials which are cheap in bulk production, but expensive to tool up for and capitalise – ideal circumstances for a designer such as Mike, who is inventive yet practical, an essential quality for effective production engineering. First was the MCR racing bicycle, a full monocoque composite that utilises several of Mike’s innovations, most notably wheels with flat composite aero spokes.These are injection moulded carbon-reinforced nylon, and exactly the