If you would like to make a link or bookmark to this page, the URL is: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/index.html Last Updated: by John Allen
Last Updated: by John Allen
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This website is such a treasure. When I was first getting into bicycles in 2013, it was a mix of Sheldon Brown and the local volunteer-run co-op that taught me everything I need to know. He is himself a generous spirit, advocating for DIY tooling, repair, and reuse.
I would highly recommend anyone into bicycles to try building their own wheel using his article.
This is my favorite kind of website. An individual going into depth on a topic they're passionate (in the true sense of the word) about. Another example is Dan's Motorcycle Repair Web page [1]. A collection of such websites would be awesome.
Here's another, ultimate bike derailleur geekery -- Disraeli Gears: https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site/home.html
truly awesome how many ways you can go deep into something. Would have never thought to spend so much time on derailleurs
By lkbm 2026-02-0714:02 The blessing and the curse of the Internet. A few years ago, I was getting new bicycle tires and fellow overly analytic bicycle nerds had built a machine to measure the rolling resistance and puncture resistance of each tire[0], so I of course I "had" to spend hours pouring over all the different options.
This was probably a more sensible use of my time than when I spent hours trying to determine which pedals I should get. Is there a reason to get low profile? Oh, this one is 20 grams lighter--oh, but some people report it breaking more than this other one.
To quote on of the best article titles of all time, reality has a surprising amount of detail.
By jacquesm 2026-02-079:24 That site is gold. I've had one that was a complete mystery, it all looked and felt perfect but still, it didn't work. I was tempted to toss it and replace it but the fact that it was a vintage Campagnolo made replacing it extremely expensive and I couldn't even find a proper replacement. So in the end I figured out what the problem was and ended up repairing it.
Me too! I'm a big fan of Rob Robinette's guitar amp page [1] for similar reasons
By alexjplant 2026-02-0717:00 robrob is basically a real-life Buckaroo Banzai... amp technician, car/motorcycle enthusiast, world helicopter champion, sharpshooter, sysadmin, ham, and owner of at least one Kei truck. We can all only hope to be as cool as him when we grow up.
By suncemoje 2026-02-0623:12 I started checking out Dan's Motorcycle Repair Web page, expecting to read about Motorcycle Repair, and the first thing I do read about is the Bible. Good lord!
By marttt 2026-02-0619:15 Yeah. There's probably tens of thousands of internet users worldwide with that same story. Myself included: when I was fixing my Bianchi retro road bike's derailleur etc some 20 years ago as a univesity freshman, this site was a definite gold mine, immensely helpful, and taught me a ton. One of my favorite procrastination rabbit holes as well back then. :) And -- a prime example of 1990s era internet and information freedom and layman-level enthusiasm -- selfless sharing of knowledge (and, I wonder if he also used Notepad to write the HTML :). Thanks, Mr Brown, for everything, all the way from Estonia!
PS, interesting to note that Mr Brown seemed to be quite a fan of sci-fi books: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/org/books.html
Same. I built my first wheel according to his specs. His whole website is so helpful and thoughtfully written. RIP.
By frikk 2026-02-072:10 My quick story: I built up an old 90s cyclocross bike and his website was the main reason I have this beast of a frankenbike gravel bike. I found his article "8 of 9 on 7" and it changed my life: Take a 9 gear cog, remove one, and it fits perfectly on a 7-speed cassette body.
Then I found his other article on an alternate wiring for a shimano mountain bike RD-310 7/8 speed drive train (which unlocks 9-speed ability), which thus let me use the rugged 7/8-speed derailleur for the cassette WITH shimano dura-ace indexed bar-end shifters (which use, get this, 9-speed spacing on an 8-speed index because it made their system "proprietary"). All of this works together flawlessly <3 <3 RIP sheldon brown.
> I would highly recommend anyone into bicycles to try building their own wheel using his article.
Hear, hear. It's an incredible resource.
I got into building and fixing bikes around 2004, and built a couple of fixed-gear bikes on a shoestring budget using parts from Nashbar.com, and Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding guide.
I also corresponded with Sheldon a few times via email, and created the Wikipedia article about him. He contributed to it a few times himself, before his untimely death in 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Brown_(bicycle_mechani...
By keithjl 2026-02-1015:31 I caught on near the tail end of the fixie craze, and my first build was a classic ten speed conversion with diagonal dropouts.
Imagine my heartbreak when I didn't tighten the lockring enough and stripped the threads the first time I tried to skid stop :')
R.I.P. Sheldon
Came to say the same, I meet him once in his shop, what a great person he was. His wife also has a great amount of bicycle knowledge from what I heard.
By cbm-vic-20 2026-02-0621:371 reply And the shop itself closed in 2021 after being open for nearly 70 years. I purchased my Brompton there.
By jmclnx 2026-02-0712:55 That is a shame, I figured Harris would be the last small shop left.
Unfortunately, I have seen a few family owned shops taken over by a "large" company, namely Trek. Others have just closed. I only know of one or 2 family owned shop left these days.
By bguthrie 2026-02-0713:48 His wife was a professor at the Northeastern computer science department when I went there. A wonderful teacher.
Ah that’s the reason why reading several articles on the site it felt out of date. For example the website states “Disc brakes have become increasingly popular on mountain bikes and are gaining some popularity for other bicycles” whereas in my experience disc brakes are popular for all kinds of bicycles.
By ssl-3 2026-02-0623:40 A lot of the information is indeed old, but then so are a lot of bikes. :)
Things are still being updated, primarily by John Allen. There's some writing about changes on the blog: https://sheldonbrown.com/blog/
(I have every expectation that he'd be quite pleased to entertain well-written updates from other parties, if anyone feels like being constructive. John is pretty easy to contact.)
By bsimpson 2026-02-0619:37 That's actually more recently than I would have guessed. He had already departed by the time I discovered bike building in the early 2010s.
Time is strange.
> Sheldon Brown, a beloved iconoclast bicycle tech guru, died Sunday from a heart attack. He was 68 63.
Curious, what does "He was 68 63" mean. Is it a bicycle gear joke about his age at death?
I’m a little surprised to learn that Jobst Brandt outlived Sheldon Brown. He was 9 years older than him and Brown died at 63.
By lemper 2026-02-072:41 By Metacelsus 2026-02-0623:42 MS sucks. We need to end Epstein-Barr virus!
By hackingonempty 2026-02-0617:37 The old Web... Thanks to Sheldon for teaching me how to fix my bike, how to launch from a stop, and how to April Fools.
