Boston area Bicycle Mechanic Extrordinare Sheldon Brown died last night of a heart attack. No one has come close to creating half of the mass of meticulously archived articles that Sheldon wrote about maintaining ("Care and Feeding", as he called it) and riding bicycles.
I had the experience of meeting Sheldon at the Las Vegas Bike show in 2001. I thanked him for writing the instructional article that virtually taught me wheel building. When he learned of our mutual love for collecting old Raleigh bikes and that I was seaching for a particular model from the 70's, he pulled out his PDA. After a few scribblings, he said that there would be email for me when I returned home. Indeed there was. Sheldon was incredibly connected in the bike community--or, I should say, we were all very connected to him. I answered an email, bought a Raleigh Folding Twenty from a fellow Sheldon fan in Texas, and then used Sheldon's detailed articles to restore it. I will never part with that bike.
Sheldon was humorous, intellectual, and uniquely multi-talented--know any other bike mechanics who sing at the Metropolitan Opera?
Sheldon, thanks for your generousity--may the wind always be at your back.
