A wonderful tribute. Thanks for sharing with us.
David
David G. White Burlington, VT
Alfredo Marcantonio wrote:
> Hello all
>
> I thought you would all be heartened to see this excerpt form today's
> Guardian Newspaper.
>
> This is one of our top National daily papers.
>
> Each thursday, its G2 supplement carries an article on bikes or
> cycling by correspondent Matt Seaton.
>
> Today's was dedicated to Sheldon. I have kept a copy, I will happily
> post it to his family
>
> or a close friend if someone can advise me of a suitable address.
>
> Two wheels
> Matt Seaton
> The Guardian, Thursday February 7 2008
> Not many bicycle mechanics have earned their own Wikipedia entry. But
> then, not many would claim the writings of Martin Luther King and
> Bertrand Russell as formative influences, or enjoy performing in
> Gilbert and Sullivan operas either.
>
> But such was Sheldon Brown, who died this week at the age of 63.
> Cycling forums the world over have threads mourning his passing. From
> his native Massachusetts to the English Midlands, memorial rides are
> being organised. All for a guy who mended bikes in a Boston suburb.
>
> So who was Sheldon Brown? The answer is immediately accessible at
> sheldonbrown.com. At first, you wonder what kind of weird world you
> have landed in when you see a picture of a portly New Englander, with
> shaved head and bushy, red-dyed beard - a kind of punk-Amish look.
> Sheldon, who worked as a mechanic for Harris Cyclery, was an eccentric
> genius. Thanks to the web, and his gloriously idiosyncratic presence
> on it, he became a guru to millions.
>
> Anyone, for instance, researching a fixed-gear bicycle, would find
> themselves directed to Sheldon's homepage. A good mechanic is hard to
> find, and those who are brilliant with a wrench are often less
> talented in the "people-person" department. But Sheldon had an
> extraordinary gift for communication and a generous impulse to share
> the incredible accumulation of information he had acquired in his
> years of pulling apart and putting back together the bikes of
> Bostonians. Though an expert in all types of gearing, he was an
> evangelist for single-speed riding. As it turns out, he was years
> ahead of his time. But he must have enjoyed seeing his mission being
> heard and taken up by so many in the current "fixie" craze.
>
> His site also includes probably the most comprehensive glossary of
> bicycle maintenance available anywhere. But check out his online
> journal and you discover a man who, though increasingly disabled (yet
> undaunted) by multiple sclerosis, absolutely devoured culture, with a
> daily commentary on his reading and viewing. And yet, he could
> describe eloquently the difference between swaging and forging or the
> mathematics of gain ratios. The phrase "Renaissance man" is hackneyed,
> but that is what Sheldon was: part-engineer, part-artist, and all human.
>
> As with many communities of interest, the internet has been a huge
> boon for cyclists. When I first started racing and got placed, I would
> scan the back pages of Cycling Weekly the following week to see if the
> results were in, and my name in 8-point type. Nowadays, results go up
> the same day on a site such as londoncyclesport.com, with a picture
> gallery a day or two later. These virtual pelotons bring us together
> as never before; commerce has necessarily become part of it, but for
> their origins we have the pure- enthusiast pioneers to thank. Of all
> these great souls, Sheldon was perhaps the greatest.