I feel like i am the only person in this entire forum that does not know who the hell this guy is. Can someone please elighten me?

www.sheldonbrown.com

He's just a guy. He works at a bike shop not far from here and likes bicycles. For a while he wrote a fairly regular series of articles for Bicycling. He has a lot of material on his web site and much of it comes from those articles. https://sheldonbrown.com/home.html

He is a god in some cultures.

^
Ha, that's for sure. That's a rather interesting phenomenon. I knew I should have had a picture taken with him when we were in the same Campy rebuidling seminar-then I could've been like a demi-god. Sigh...

We use his web-site for reference. He has alot of info on a wide range of cycling topics.

gasp!!!

Sheldon Brown is a bike mechanic up in Massachusetts who works at a place called Harris Cyclery. His claim to fame is writing tremendously detailed technical articles on topics that range from tremendously useful (e.g., gear rations, wheel lacing patterns) to tremendously inane (e.g. the history of postwar Raliegh 3-speed hubs), but they're all exceptionally well researched and grounded in his vast experience. If you have a technical question, his website is a great resource, and his shop has some parts that are difficult to find elsewhere. He's not very down with modern racing setups, but if you're looking to do something involving single speed or the restoration of an old European bike, the dude is a vertaible wizard.

sheldon brown has an eagle on his helmet.

I find Sheldon and Harris very helpful. But, it's funny the perception you get by learning about something from a web sight. When you get there it's not like you picture it. The on line presentation sort of gives everything a "larger than life" point of view. It does a good job of boosting credibility. And gets guys from R.I. to go up there to buy stuff. A friend of mine has a place smaller than Harris, he was intervied in the news about something. Now he gets people in there from California, saying they thought it was some huge store.

Again this is not negative in any way, I have driven to Harris from here at least twice to get something and, been very happy. They had a "Realight" and the new Cateye 10 led light before the US mail order places had them. I have learned a lot of good stuff from both.
I think I read that Sheldon was at Harris before the current owners. He has to have been in the bike biz for a long time.

I felt alone in my lothing of the Derailleurs - I looked for help among the three-speeds (or Sturmeys) - and I found SB - and from him..... fixed-gear.

Blasphemy!

True, lots of good non-derailleur stuff. But plenty of good pro-derailleur stuff too.

I'd have to agree; that's like saying Lance is "just a cyclist".

Sheldon and Harris Cyclery provide a tremendous amount of knowlege, history, and occasionally corny humor to the cycling community, particularly in the area of repair and maintenance. He's not snobby about it, and the info is all free for the searching. It's hard to find that much quality info concentrated in one place without a lot of attitude from some punk behind the repair counter.

You're just trolling aren't you? I'm thinking that if you really wanted to know, you would've tried a search engine first.

That's just what I'm saying. I know Sheldon, at least by messages we exchange on the massbike listserv. He's just an ordinary guy. He's a guy with a ton of knowledge, some truly arcane stuff, but deep down, just a guy who likes bikes. He likes to talk about them, write about them, read about them, ride them. But he's just a guy and that's exactly why he's so great because he's a normal approachable guy--with a 63 speed bicycle.

(Take that, Dura Ace 10!)

He has some very good stuff on his web site. There is also a lot of depth in some of the articles. Now here is where I may be cast down, tarred and feathered, and banned from the forum by SB worshipers......

Some things on his web site are JUST OPINIONS and THEORIES, not LAWS and ABSOLUTE TRUTHS like the followers think. There are a couple things that are correct "in theory", which he is stating to prove a point. But, some people practice them on the street, which is not (hopefully) what he meant or what works best.

Example: He explains the theory of how the maximum braking of the front wheel is achieved by hitting the front brake to the point where the rear tire is at the lift off point. He compares that to using the rear brakes only and states that the front is where most of the braking power is. All true, and point well proven. He DOES NOT talk about real world, not always in a straight line other than smooth surface braking. (he didn't intend to) He did not talk about using BOTH brakes and a proper weight shift, which gets you even more braking power and this is usable on rough surfaces and in turns. He didn't do this because he was trying to prove a SIMPLE, ideal condition theoretical point.

The problem is we now have many riders that NEVER use, and don’t know how to use, their rear brakes in coordination with their front. All because "Sheldon says". This is not at all what he was trying to achieve.

Hmmmm, sounds just like some other religions...........

WOH! hes in massachussetts and he works at harris cyclery, DAMN I have to go meet him now.

Possibly sheldon's point is that far too many people believe that the front brake is dangerous to use. His theoretical example is effective, valid and, as it happens, true. If you start talking about going downhill, speaking of real-world examples, the rear brake becomes next to useless - even with weight shift. Without using the front brake, you won't stop. Frankly, the only surfaces on which the front brake is more dangerous than the rear are ice and wet steel. If you give me the option of a front or rear brake, I'll take the front every time.

And just in case I somehow got lumped into this category -- I do know how and when to use my rear brake, I just very rarely have occasion to need it in my daily commuting. Just a tap here and there on the front when I need to slow down. Hardly any hard corners at high speed or panic stops that need both brakes are to be found on my route.

Just had to speak up in case you noted my Mavic problem...

You just totally verified my point. Thank you.

The idea is that you really should use BOTH brakes at the same time in a balanced proportion for maximum braking in high performance conditions. Sheldon's talk is about front OR rear. He dosen't consider front AND rear. Front only can give you a front end washout (which results in a face plant) or a nice little something called snap oversteer (which results in a high-side exit) if you are not going in a straight line.

This is taking a SIMPLE (ie real world variables not applied) example, that was being made to tell a casual cyclist that it is OK to use the front brake and that you won't flip over the handlebars, and having people that race and ride in fast groups thinking that what he is saying is that you should only use the front brake.

If you want to get to know the guy, participate in the Usenet forum rec.bicycles.tech. Sheldon is a denizen there.

What about his "why I spell 'derailleur' as 'derailer'" article?

IS re.bicycles.tech a big forum? I thought it was a poor cousin to the others?

https://www.cyclingforums.com/f172-re...cles.tech.html

I agree totally.