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.
marttt 4 minutes ago [-]
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!
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.
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.
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.
hackingonempty 2 hours ago [-]
The old Web... Thanks to Sheldon for teaching me how to fix my bike, how to launch from a stop, and how to April Fools.
> To update an old saying, 28 grams of prevention are worth 454 grams of cure.
foco_tubi 1 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.
sorbusherra 9 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.
czscout 1 hours ago [-]
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.
ian-g 1 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
comprev 54 minutes 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!
chromatin 55 minutes 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.
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/
simlevesque 2 hours ago [-]
RIP to this legendary hacker.
cguess 1 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 23 minutes ago [-]
I'm going to repeat this verbatim in my next technical interview. I still have nightmares about an old peugeot px10
hilsdev 1 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 1 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
shrubby 37 minutes ago [-]
Still awesome.
And the web design!
carabiner 2 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 3 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.
I would highly recommend anyone into bicycles to try building their own wheel using his article.
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] http://dansmc.com/
https://www.wired.com/2008/02/sheldon-brown-w/
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!
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
And the web design!
0: https://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/fell/
I'm riding my qualifying 300k tomorrow!
Good luck tomorrow!