Sheldon Brown surely deserves to be in the Bicycle Hall of Fame, in the Contributors category.
He’s up there with just a few top contributors to cycling in recent years.
For many years he has provided free online info about every aspect of the “allrounder” forms of cycling. He has kept alive much helpful info about older and traditional bike parts which are still highly useful but which info would’ve gone extinct otherwise. He has also made many diverse and useful bike parts available via his website for the Harris Cyclery bike shop.
Sheldon was also famous for being friendly and generous with personal expert help, especially via email. And not just with bikes. He was an opera and classical music buff, and much more.
Sadly, he passed away a few days ago, at age 63, from a heart attack.
In recent years he had been diagnosed with MS, which wasn’t life-threatening and which he took with great good cheer and which he wrote about online accordingly, but only on webpages reserved for such topics. He didn’t let it bother his generosity with bike help.
I don’t want to rush anything, but I agree with the sentiments that the bike community should help keep his many websites in active status. And also that he’s a great candidate for the Hall of Fame. (Why wasn’t he inducted long ago?) Lastly, Sheldon had a great sense of humor about himself. And he loved classical music, as I said. And there’s that great photo of him with his eagle helmet. So…I don’t think it would be out of place to nominate him (to the Vatican?) as the patron saint of bike mechanics…and make a modest bust of his noble visage for suitable display at our workbenches. I’d be proud to have him watch over my wrenching! I think he’d think that was funny. And perhaps not too awkward. He seems bustworthy to me. At any rate, I’ll never forget Sheldon and I’ll try to live up to his standards. OK, maybe a photo will have to do. He and Coppi can watch over my bench…
