[keithjl]

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.

[klum]

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.

[1] http://dansmc.com/

[marttt]

Here's another, ultimate bike derailleur geekery -- Disraeli Gears: https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site/home.html

[zampano]

Me too! I'm a big fan of Rob Robinette's guitar amp page [1] for similar reasons

[1] https://robrobinette.com/Amp_Stuff.htm

[suncemoje]

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!

[marttt]

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

[fyrabanks]

Same. I built my first wheel according to his specs. His whole website is so helpful and thoughtfully written. RIP.

[frikk]

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.

[dlenski]

> 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...

[keithjl]

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 :')