February 3, 2008
Bicycle mechanic and expert Sheldon Brown died in the Boston-area city of Newton, Massachusetts, at the age of 63. Brown was the parts manager, technical consultant, and webmaster for a bicycle shop near where he lived, but his formidable expertise and interest in both vintage and contemporary bicycles earned him acclaim that went far beyond his daytime workplace.
“To his legion of local customers, Sheldon Brown was an outgoing Newton bike-shop mechanic who could fix just about anything on wheels,” reported the Boston Globe a few days after his death. “To a worldwide readership, Brown was a sage in cyberspace, using his widely read Web pages to hold forth on everything from the merits of leather saddles to the care of old English three-speed hubs.”
Equipped with a knowledge of bicycles that was once described by the Times of London as encyclopedic, Brown wrote extensively both in print and online on that mode of transportation. He was a contributing writer for such industry magazines as Bike World, Bicycling, and American Bicyclist. His no-frills website “Sheldon Brown’s Bicycle Technical Info” similarly covered a wide range of subjects and became a vital resource for bicyclists and many others across the globe. Brown used this website to provide a wealth of information on everything from fixing the flat tire of a bicycle to building a tandem from a couple of old steel frames.
Brown was an enthusiastic cyclist himself; after steady nerve deterioration in his final years prevented him from riding an upright bicycle, he relied instead on a recumbent tricycle to get around. Following his death, Brown was named a recipient of the Influence Pedaler Award by the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) for his world-renowned contributions.
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on Sheldon Brown, please check out https://www.bikeradar.com/news/sheldon-brown-1944-200 and https://sheldonbrown.com/adv-cycling/Schubert_Cyclesense_Sheldon%20Brown.pdf
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