So happy to see this featured here! Had been tinkering with bikes a long time before finding Sheldon’s site, but when I did I was dumbstruck by the amount of insight. And to top that, what a person he was. RIP
bookstore-romeo 4 minutes ago [-]
This is an incredible ressource without which I feel so many bikes and bike parts would go to waste. At the bike coop I volunteer at we’re trying to follow Sheldon’s footsteps by collecting information and procedures that are about making bikes & parts last for as long as they possibly can. What’s truly amazing is that all that documentation is amazing for both low-resource repairs on the cheapest of old parts and vintage part enthusiasts.
I think Sheldon Brown’s impact is a valuable lesson on sustainable engineering and the enormous role documentation plays in it
keithjl 2 hours ago [-]
This website is such a treasure. When I was first getting into bicycles in 2013, it was a mix of Sheldon Brown and the local volunteer-run co-op that taught me everything I need to know. He is himself a generous spirit, advocating for DIY tooling, repair, and reuse.
I would highly recommend anyone into bicycles to try building their own wheel using his article.
klum 1 hours ago [-]
This is my favorite kind of website. An individual going into depth on a topic they're passionate (in the true sense of the word) about. Another example is Dan's Motorcycle Repair Web page [1]. A collection of such websites would be awesome.
Yeah. There's probably tens of thousands of internet users worldwide with that same story. Myself included: when I was fixing my Bianchi retro road bike's derailleur etc some 20 years ago as a univesity freshman, this site was a definite gold mine, immensely helpful, and taught me a ton. One of my favorite procrastination rabbit holes as well back then. :) And -- a prime example of 1990s era internet and information freedom and layman-level enthusiasm -- selfless sharing of knowledge (and, I wonder if he also used Notepad to write the HTML :). Thanks, Mr Brown, for everything, all the way from Estonia!
Same. I built my first wheel according to his specs. His whole website is so helpful and thoughtfully written. RIP.
sebastian_z 3 minutes ago [-]
There is (was?) a bike shop in Pittsburgh, Kraynick's Bike Shop [1], where you could bring your bike and use their tools. It was nice, and I appreciate the DIY ethics and generosity.
That's actually more recently than I would have guessed. He had already departed by the time I discovered bike building in the early 2010s.
Time is strange.
jmclnx 1 hours ago [-]
Came to say the same, I meet him once in his shop, what a great person he was. His wife also has a great amount of bicycle knowledge from what I heard.
Sheldon's website is such an awesome relic of the internet we all miss. It still has a ton of relevant information if you ever find yourself dealing with obscure wheel sizes or something like that. Love it. RIP.
foco_tubi 2 hours ago [-]
Sheldon was a wealth of information when I first started tinkering on my vintage 3-speed back in 2007. I would pore over these simple pages for hours in my dorm at college instead of studying. That led to dropping out and working in the bike industry for almost 10 years. It was a great preparation in problem solving and systems-oriented thinking before I got into programming.
behole 54 minutes ago [-]
Legend! I was a bicycle mechanic for a decade and this guy was our jezus! He influenced so many of my creative bicycle builds and exposed me to things like Alex Singer, Rene Herse, bicycle quarterly etc.. Big love for Sheldon and all his passion and work.
ian-g 2 hours ago [-]
I used to work on bikes professionally, and this was the first place we went for help. Even today, it's one of the clearest resources out there
simlevesque 2 hours ago [-]
RIP to this legendary hacker.
cguess 2 hours ago [-]
Amen. If you've ever had to deal with repairing French frames from before the 1980s you know that finding a memory leak in a race condition is easy in comparison.
wampwampwhat 1 hours ago [-]
I'm going to repeat this verbatim in my next technical interview. I still have nightmares about an old peugeot px10
> To update an old saying, 28 grams of prevention are worth 454 grams of cure.
sorbusherra 52 minutes ago [-]
i worked as a bicycle mechanic when I got completely tired of it-world. This website saved my ass numerous times while fixing bicycles. Absolutely legendary webdesign also that just works well.
cos2pi 2 hours ago [-]
A wealth of knowledge here, especially helpful for wheelbuilding and checking the compatibility of archaic sizing systems. Lennard Zinn is another great reference in bike maintenance: https://lennardzinn.substack.com/
comprev 2 hours ago [-]
I learned wheel building many years ago from Sheldon's website and that lead to many great memories fixing other racer's wheels around camp fires in my 20s.
A fantastic resource!
matsemann 1 minutes ago [-]
Similar story. As a student I bought an old bike and restored it thanks to lots of info I found from Sheldon. And building a wheel was such a fun but weird experience. Part mechanics, part art.
I ended up writing my thesis on bicycle wheels after this. Or, it's a thesis on optimization algorithms, but I managed to play around with optimizing wheels as the "real world application". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10410813
chromatin 2 hours ago [-]
When I was a young(er) postdoc and had to overhaul my bicycle -- my main transportation to work-- this site was invaluable. Forever grateful to Sheldon.
hilsdev 2 hours ago [-]
This was a major influence for me, both getting into single speed and fixed gear biking before the craze, and building geo cities sites with my friends in high school
diggyhole 2 hours ago [-]
Thank you for sharing. This is wholesome as f*ck.
tetris11 2 hours ago [-]
I'm so glad they went back to the old design.
There was a point a few years back where someone did a site revamp with modern CSS and all that horrible jazz in clear attempts to monetize this incredible resource.
Happy to hear they reverted
carabiner 3 hours ago [-]
Random tidbit, his daughter is a researcher/mathematician at OpenAI.
hackingonempty 2 hours ago [-]
...and his widow, Harriet Fell, is a CS Professor (emerita) at Northeastern[0], and an accomplished cyclist who completed Paris-Brest-Paris (a 1200km ride and to qualify you have to complete 200km, 300km, 400km, and 600km rides in the 8 months leading up to it.)
For PBP2027 you have all of 2026, as well as 2027 leading up to registration, to complete the required BRMs.
I'm riding my qualifying 300k tomorrow!
dan-bailey 46 minutes ago [-]
Oh thank god. I was planning on a 200km, 300km, and 400km this year, all as mental preparation, and then having to blitz next year by traveling to warmer locales. I
I'm doing my 200km at the end of April, and my 300km in early July, followed by a 400km gravel in early August. Going to be a grind.
Good luck tomorrow!
eschneider 24 minutes ago [-]
Nice! Old me and my old bike are sticking to 200kms this year. :)
cos2pi 2 hours ago [-]
Allez!
markstos 2 hours ago [-]
Good luck!
steve_adams_86 20 minutes ago [-]
I tried qualifying for PBP with some friends and we were fried on the 600. We did some longer rides, but never so intensively and without rest. Such good times. Maybe one day (likely when my kids are grown) I'll try again. I still dream of eating so much French food after annihilating myself on a bicycle. It sound incredible.
I think Sheldon Brown’s impact is a valuable lesson on sustainable engineering and the enormous role documentation plays in it
I would highly recommend anyone into bicycles to try building their own wheel using his article.
[1] http://dansmc.com/
[1] https://robrobinette.com/Amp_Stuff.htm
PS, interesting to note that Mr Brown seemed to be quite a fan of sci-fi books: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/org/books.html
[1] https://kraynicksbikeshop.weebly.com/
https://www.wired.com/2008/02/sheldon-brown-w/
Time is strange.
if you like this you may also like:
https://outspokencyclist.com/tag/harriet-fell/
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/real-man.html
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tork-grip.html
> To update an old saying, 28 grams of prevention are worth 454 grams of cure.
A fantastic resource!
I ended up writing my thesis on bicycle wheels after this. Or, it's a thesis on optimization algorithms, but I managed to play around with optimizing wheels as the "real world application". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10410813
There was a point a few years back where someone did a site revamp with modern CSS and all that horrible jazz in clear attempts to monetize this incredible resource.
Happy to hear they reverted
0: https://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/fell/
I'm riding my qualifying 300k tomorrow!
Good luck tomorrow!
And the web design!