We lost a good one

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Dear Harris Cyclery friends and customers,
It is with heavy hearts that we convey to you the news that Sheldon Brown has passed away. Our thoughts go out to his family at this time. The cycling community has lost one of it’s most passionate members.

Read more: sheldonbrown.com

About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

36 Replies to “We lost a good one”

  1. A good man who contributed to all of our lives. He will be missed. My condolence to his family.

  2. A true loss to the community. But at least his pain and suffering has ended.

    His body is at peace now.

    When is the memorial service at The Church of the Big Ring?

  3. Never met the man, never knew him. I can say his site helped me figure out many things about my bike that I never would have figured out except thru catastrophic failure or many a bloody knuckle.

    I went over his entries from the last year or so. A real shame, but you can say he lived life to its fullest in many ways. We can all learn a lesson from him. I will be taking this lesson to heart.

    “In most ways my life is a dream: after 27 years of marriage, my wife and I are still very much in love.”

    Thank you for pointing out what is really important.

  4. Sheldon Brown will live forever in our hearts and minds. As well as on the net, all his knowledge and passion are still there guiding us, old and new.

    I’m sure we are all grateful to Sheldon for being Sheldon and living his life dedicated to bicycles.

    Each of our days will come and I can only hope, when my day comes, I can somehow be even half as helpful as Sheldon Brown.

    Great people leave large holes in our common consciousness, that means we all need to step up a bit to fill that hole with good thoughts, versus ignorance and painful bumblings.

  6. One Sheldon Brown more than made up for all the hundreds of attitude-copping snotnoses working in “LBS’s” accross the country who won’t give the average rider the time of day, let alone freely share helpful information. Here’s hoping Sheldon’s website lives on for many years to come, and that more people will follow his example of generosity and encouragement. My condolences and prayers go out to him, and his family.

  7. Guys–

    Mr. Brown’s passing is a major milestone in cycling. I hope his encyclopedic and sometimes hilarious advice lives on forever. I keep his web site bookmarked, and I look stuff up on there!

    Mikey

  9. I am saddened… in a twist of irony I received some tires for my old English three-speed today… Sheldon was the only one on the net with enough knowledge to articulate exactly what needed.

  10. Wow. When I first started tweaking, then building bikes, I posted many stupid questions to Bikeforums and Sheldon was always there when no one else had anything constructive to say about a particular problem. Never condescending, never sarcastic (OK maybe a little!) but ALWAYS spot on. May we all aspire to be as good a human as Sheldon “taught us well” Brown.

  11. Like others have said, he was always ready and willing to help on even the most basic issues.

    He was one of a kind and will be missed.

    Rest in peace, Mr. Brown.

  12. Some time ago I e-mailed him what, upon reflection, were some incredibly stupid newbish questions thankfully lost to memory and his replies were always informative, congenial, and held absolutely no trace of malice or condescension.

    A true gentleman and scholar that will be missed.

    I wish I’d known him…

  13. Just checked out some derailer advice from him last night. Very sad. I’m gonna get have a few shots of my sacred 1 Barrel just for Sheldon.

  14. A real loss to cycling and everyone. He answered a ton of dorky questions for me from thousands of miles away. Just cus. Thanks Sheldon.

  15. Amazing the loss one can feel for someone you’ve never met. I’ve E-mailed Sheldon Brown with a few questions over the years, and downloaded a ton of his cheat sheets for use around the shop, and kept up with his reports on his illness, but I found myself staring at the repairs sitting around the shop today remembering how much of what I know I first read about on his site, I’ll tip one in his direction tonight for sure.

  17. …i went for a spirit ride on my cross rig today, after i heard the news…sunny day, muddy conditions & i just wanted sheldon’s spirit to see the beauty of this area through my eyes…he carried me through the ride…

    …if that sounds dumb or hokey, then i guess i’m dumb & hokey…

    …c’est la vie…

  18. the number of people who e-mailed Sheldon, and got an answer … is amazing … on bike forums all over, in the most obscure places .. I am seeing that same thing …

    he communicated with thousands and thousands ….

    incredible

  21. aw man……

    SB had a nice visit to the 3rd planet…a life perhaps better than most..but it sucks rocks to know he’s done. The Telegraph & the Times won’t run the obit, but he should be there.

    His rock in the pond made ripples that traveled a long, long way.

  22. Even though Sheldon Brown was suffering pretty bad from the MS, he still continued to work and help people. That says a lot. I feel so awful for his wife and children. He was still quite young.

  23. A great loss for Sheldon’s family and the bicycling community. I remember the first time I came across his website and felt I had found a pot of gold. I spent many hours reading it like the best book ever written. It was comedy, drama, encyclopedia, school book all in one. Unfortunately it has now ended as a tragedy.

    RIP Sheldon Brown, you will be missed.

  25. I had the oppurtunity to meet him and had my picture taken with him at this past year’s Interbike. I am glad that I was able to personally thank him for his website and the tons of help that it has given me.

    His memory will be a major subject of tonight’s CRAP ride in Tempe.

    -The Devil Horned Helmeted One

  26. I spent many hours reading his articles on the Harris Bike website, many more hours reading his shiz on rec.bikes.tech

    Ride On Sheldon, right on.

  27. Same as everyone else, eamiled him and he answered spot on and even his typed answer showed he cared. Ronnie Thomson, Sheldon Brown, this year has not started off well…

    Glass will be raised.

  28. Add my name to the long list of shade-tree bike mechanics who have learned so much from his enormous wealth of knowledge.

    Let us celebrate the life and works of Sheldon Brown.

  29. I couldn’t sleep last night so I went to the shop, cleaned up and did some adjustements with my colorcoded tools using some notes from his rear deraileur adjustment suggestions.

    Damn.

  30. This dude always had time for answers. Every email or call I put in to him about bike mechanics he answered with everything including where to get stuff…and he always followed with more questions

    RIP

    War Old Guys on Fixies with mad Burns

  33. I was really happy to see that of all the stuff posted day to day, this got the number of responses it did. Shows what an impression SB had on so many of us. Chalk me up as one more that consulted with the old wizards simple instructions.