RIP Sheldon Brown. I don't want to turn this into a post about me, but he gave me my start in this business. In 1996 when I got really interested in fixed gear bikes there was nothing out there. You couldn't walk into a bike shop and buy one. His web site was like a beacon, shining out there on the Internet, saying you could make one! With your own two hands. And he gave the information away. Sure, I bought a wheel set there eventually, but that tiny bit of business didn't begin to repay all the goodwill he put out there.
Monday, February 04, 2008
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3 comments:
Sheldon will be missed.
I first ran into Sheldon Brown in the early days of Usenet soon after the rec.bicycle.* groups formed. The groups quickly developed flame wars and other forms of bickering. Some of the experts there would not suffer fools, while other posters were just making noise. But Sheldon would carefully answer, in a friendly way, any serious question without attacking the ignorance of the questioner. He raised the signal-to-noise level on the groups and helped make them a community. Later on, he continued his work in developing the cyber aspects of the bicycle community, making it a much more pleasant, friendly and informative place than it would have been without him.
Sheldon will be missed. When I was first getting into fixed gear cycling back in 2005, he was a great source of information, and I really enjoyed his fresh, unique outlook on life as well as cycling ...
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