Sheldon Brown passed away last night. May he ride on indefinitely.
People who know I am a "bike guy" periodically come up to me and ask, what do you think about this Sheldon Brown guy. I was googling for *any bicycle subject* and his website came up.
And I always answer the same way.
What do I think about Sheldon Brown?
He is the single greatest cyclist in the world.
Thats what I think.
It is hard to express how much he has influenced bicycling in America. Though I never met him, it is similarly hard to express how much he influenced my cycling life. His website is an infinite source of information for the DIY bike mechanic. I learned to build wheels in the early nineties in a shop in cambridge that he helped found. I learned to build wheels correctly years later from his website. The current fixed gear hipster revolution is undeniably his fault. I defy you to read his bicycle glossary for more than 10 minutes and not learn something new. I could go on, but there is no need, if you are reading this post it is quite likely you have your very own Sheldon Brown story. This is a huge loss for the global cycling community. He will be missed sorely by all that knew him in any way shape or form.
Ride on and on my odd helmeted friend.
Thanks to ChicoGino and Jimg for the Obey Sheldon badge
3 comments:
The saddest news of the day Tarik, thanks for the nice post about him and what he meant and means to you. Sad that I never got to meet him.
As soon as I heard Sheldon had passed away, I instantly thought of you Tarik. Yeah, this is sad news. His was one of the rare bike websites I actually found interesting and read.
"Though I never met him" (and valued his work highly) is one of the most common quotes I've been seeing.
I feel especially privileged to have met him on a few occasions. Funny... I think not once when he was at work at Harris.
His influence was very positive and astonishingly widespread.
I suspect this will continue for quite a while.
I'm delighted he committed so much of his time to the written word.
Sheldon will be missed by many of us left to get through our existences.
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