Too much to mention here. All my bikes are basically build with things i learned from Sheldon's site. Most notorious:

I have a 6spd freewheel i Shimano Z series. I wanted to disassemble it but Sheldons site stated in bold red this was not so smart to do. Of course i ignored the red and bold and by result like 70 small bearing balls were rolling over the floor :D

My rear wheel on my touring bike would not exist today without the kind and sage advice of Herr Braun!

STI conversion of 7-sp Shimano 105 1992 Specialized Epic Carbon, using Sora levers. 5000 km later, still running strong - although as a basement trainer bike now.

Single-speed conversion of my late-70's Gitane.

Not counting the numerous "how the hell do I do this", "is there a part that could do that", "what's going to fit on that thing", etc.

The 2 most useful references on the web (and the 2 most often quoted in response to BF questions): Sheldon, and Park tools. Park for how to fix what can be fixed, and Sheldon for how to fix what cannot be fixed (or how to fix what doesn't necessarily need fixing, but that's another story).

Every bike I have has a bit of Sheldon about it. I built up a fixed gear after reading 'fixed gear on the cheap' and used his advice to make fit & component choices for my custom dream bike.

I enjoy working on my own bikes and he is a trove of good tips & hints to make it all work better.

Thank you , sir!

haha, that's great

I am in the middle of lacing spokes on a rear wheel and I am pretty much sticking with the build description on Sheldon's site.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html
But I've read quite a bit of the rest of the site. The wheel building description is easy to follow.

Why hasn't Sheldon turned this into a book? Seems like a nice companion to the web site...

Like everybody else on the thread, all 4 of my bikes have benefited from my consulting Sheldon's site. However,The bike that always reminds me of Sheldon is my wife's World Sport. Picked up for $60 at a garage sale, the brake caliper's looked cruddy, so with Sheldon's explanation of reach, I confidently ordered a pair of new calipers. Then, how the hell do you fit these modern recessed calipers on an old fork. I went to Sheldon's site. Simple, switch the rear and front caliper, push the nut up the fork, and tighten it with an allen key through the hole in the back of the fork. Despair to triumph in under an hour.

My wife was a little sceptical about my building a bike for her, but she fell in love with the World Sport after I'd completed the job. Now,most weekends in Summer, in good weather, we take a 25-30 mile ride together. Without Sheldon's site the World Sport would probably still be cluttering the garage, and I'd have wasted the money on the calipers. I could have asked for advice here, but a lot of the best advice on this forum is recycled Sheldon, so I'm not sure how succesful I'd have been.

Hope you overcome what ails you, and thank you Sheldon "Fount of Knowledge" Brown.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/200/4...71b26ac352.jpg

Though I appreciate that you are all indebted to Mr. Brown (as am i, for that matter), comments like 'hope you overcome what ails you' are just a tad more than inappropriate when they they are directed at someone who is suffering from MS.

What I love about this thread is that every single bike posted is unique. We've got tandems, fixed gears, commuters, utility bikes, choppers, internal gears, downtube shifters, and lots of lovely lugged steel. And they're all obviously ridden, as God intended, not a garage queen in the bunch.

Every one of these bikes was built up by their owners for their individual requirements. And every one of these bikes is ridden hard but well-maintained by their loving rider-builders.

Thanks again, Sheldon.

I wasn't aware that a final diagnosis of MS had been made. Apologies if my good wishes for Sheldon offended anybody; absolutely no offence was intended.

I didn't interpret it that way, and I appreciate the sentiment.

Sheldon "12 Miles On The Trike Today" Brown

+1

Speaking of books, I picked up a book on bike repair at a garage sale the other day. I look to the back for the credits, and whose name did I see serveral times? None other than Sheldon Browns!

Sheldon's site helped me particularly with learning the basics of truing wheels so that I was able to get my bikes rear wheel nicely tensioned and trued. And it looks like it may be helping me learn about freewheels today for my job at work tomorrow.

I don't know if there is a particular bike of mine that is a "Sheldon" bike, but I can say that after rediscovering cycling his website was one of the first things I found, and every time I got stuck trying to change some part around or otherwise screw with my bikes, he had the answers.

Two things in particular that influenced me: His fixed-gear on the cheap guide and general fixed lore helped me realize that you didn't have to be particularly special to ride one of these, and I've found a new kind of biking I really enjoy. the second thing is the value in learning how to build and maintain your own wheels. a bunch of reading and a couple of false starts and now i've got a nice custom wheelset I ride every day.

It's hard to make a judgement, but I was reading his site every day for a while, and without that knowledge I probably would not be riding this: (which has been extensively modified since this picture even)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/168/3...c0830a42a3.jpg

I didn't think offence was intended. It just ocurred to me that a lot of people spend hours, maybe days browsing Mr. brown's website for bicycle related stuff, but somehow do not manage to find the health blog which is only a few clicks away.

I haven't put together a "Sheldon-inspired" bike yet - but he has prevented me from totally trashing the ones I currently have.

The great thing about Sheldon's site isn't just the breadth and availability of info; it's that it's completely in-depth and just make sense. When just starting cycling, there's a lot of confusing, often contradictory information given from various sources often with no explanation. Sheldon, however, always breaks everything down to simple physics which makes things easily understandable (well, for me anyway). His article on weight balance and braking techniques was fantastic, has made me a front-braker and I think safer for it. Although I haven't switched the brakes yet, mostly due to ambidexterity. ;)

To Sheldon:

I just used your site to figure out how to remove, clean, regrease, and painstakingly reinstall my old ass bottom bracket like a safecracker. And as a result, next time I am just going to buy a cartridge replacement. But thanks for the info, you have been mucho helpful with everything bike related!

Due to Sheldon Brown's amazing Raleigh Twenty conversions, I decided to make one of my own. Keep in mind that at the time, I hadn't ridden a bike in about 20 years and didn't know the first thing about changing a tire! :) A few years later, I'm still tinkering with my Twenty, but it has been a blast to ride, started me on a new and amazing hobby, and taught me the ins and outs of the mechanics of a bicycle. Thank You Sheldon,
Juan
Well, it's only taken me a year and a half to get around to posting pics, but here's my Raleigh Twenty. The mods are as follows:

http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/6065/r20amh5.th.jpghttp://img524.imageshack.us/img524/2253/r20bwy5.th.jpghttp://img59.imageshack.us/img59/984...rainqw6.th.jpghttp://img374.imageshack.us/img374/5...rontxb3.th.jpg
click for full size

Sheldon Brown wrote me a reply on one of my first posts on this forum about the issue of labor organization in a bicycle shop. He said that he made an attempt at such an activity in his past (with the Teamsters I believe) and that it was unsuccessful in the end. Just the idea that I was not treading a completely new path was a relief. Conditions in my work are improving, and I know that Sheldon's short encouraging words played some part in that .

-jk

International Understanding
 

Mr. Brown allowed me to use his English-to-French and English-to-Spanish translations as the start of a data base project. It has grown to more terms and more langugaes. It was huge leg up to jump start the project:
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=152


Calvin Jones
Park Tool

I didn't know Sheldon was unwell and am sorry to hear it. I just emailed him off the bat yesterday saying how useful I found his site. It is as you have all been saying, a huge resource of useful, accurate information - something quite rare on the Internet today.

Best to you Sheldon and thanks again for all your work - especially, your funny sign offs ( eg Sheldon "12 miles on the trike today" Brown).

LOL

This is the first I've heard of Sheldon's MS diagnosis as well. I guess it's sort of fitting that the bike I'm going to be riding in next weekend's MS150 is the one that benefited the most from his work.

Chris

He made rude and disparaging comments about my "loser' helicomatic hub (not to me, but on his hub page) but still, he had the correct and necessary maintenance info for this outdated, obscure, and dubious part posted there.

He's a treasure.

sometimes...the tests and the medicine are distasteful... but it cures what ails you!!!

Sheldon personally answered my questions about building this, my first fixie, and his story on Raleigh 3-speeds and club racers inspired this build of my winter commuter bike in 2004. Yeah, brake is on the right. Also responsible for my first wheelbuild; currently happy in my '82 Schwinn Voyageur 11.8. And the correct adjustment of the derailleurs on my Coppi and my wife's mountainbike. And the need to acquire a three speed. And a deBernardi trackie. Hey Honey. all the bikes in the garage are Sheldon's fault. Thanks for saving my butt again, Sheldon. Ride on.
http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2004/f/bosman1.jpg

I guess I should thank Sheldon for the instructions on the above. I read them very carefully and after two weeks, the wheel hasn't fallen apart. In fact, it is still in true.

The only issue right now is that I took all the old spokes off two wheels (first one has a suspiciously twisted rim...) and am looking at them as I type. I just can't get around to throwing them out...