Richard "Dick" Burke, 73, founder of Trek Bicycle Corp. died Monday of complications of heart surgery, according to his son and Trek preisdent, John Burke. The elder Burke founded the company in Waterloo, Wisconsin, in 1976 and grew it to be a best-selling bike manufacturer that has produced frames for Lance Armstrong and many prominent triathletes. Trek now sells 1.5 million bicycles a year and does $700 million in sales.

"He always wanted to build the best bicycle company in the world and he did it," John Burke told the Associated Press.

Born in Chicago in 1934, Burke graduated from Milwaukee's Marquette University then worked in the appliance distribution business. Then in the bike-crazed 1970s, he sensed a need for a high-end U.S. bike builder and thus took a risk by beginning Trek in a small red barn. The company now has more than 5,000 dealers worldwide, 1,600 employees and still does the majority of its manufacturing in Wisconsin.

Burke was an avid runner, competing in five New York City Marathons and three Boston Marathons, but rode his bike a lot as he grew older, John Burke told the AP.