Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/

by thunderbong • 3 years ago

323 134 3 years ago

ofalkaed• 3 years ago

I really wish they would give up the ads and ask the community for support, I find it difficult to believe that they could not find funding for the site with all the various organizations out there in the bike community who just throw money at such things. A few years ago I could not take the ads on the site any longer and had to enable the ad block, quick look at a random page on the site (canti brake geometry) and ad block reports 30 ads blocked, a little ridiculous. I would pay for an ad free option. Perhaps they will start seeking alternative means now that Harris has closed down. Fantastic site and an invaluable resource to me over the years.

2bluesc• 3 years ago

It's mostly (all?) static content.

This should be cheap and easy to host behind a CDN like Cloudflare.

tornato7• 3 years ago

EDIT: I see it's a WordPress site and I take back what I said. WordPress is a nightmare to maintain.

tetris11• 3 years ago

Wow, the ads are new. Back when I used this site it was a delightfully clunky 1990s hyperlink encyclopaedia. I learned an incredible amount about threading sizes

acomjean• 3 years ago

I think I t was in part sponsored by Harris bike store which is no longer a going concern.

Sheldon’s Brown widow I think runs the site now. Prof Fell who taught one of my grad school CS classes.

sen• 3 years ago

Yeah the ads have gotten insane. The site didn’t used to be like this. Now I get dedicated ad-pages when I click a link, and I have to click through to continue to the page I was trying to get to. That’s… excessive.

A banner ad at the top of each page should be more than enough to fund a static site like this (with extra for the authors efforts).

KennyBlanken2• 3 years ago

I got a popup ad when I clicked a link.

After I dismissed that ad and was actually taken to the link I clicked, the top of the page had a creepy anime dating sim ad that seemed barely SFW.

Another page had four banner ads.

bacon_waffle3• 3 years ago

Surely just a small handful of folks donating a few bucks through patreon or whatever, could keep the site ticking over with no ads.

_a_a_a_• 3 years ago

I have some insight into this and it's not good. Quite a while back I supported a charitable drive for a good cause on a well known site (you'll have heard of it).

So, total donations were by about 20 people who really funded all of it, the total take for that was distinctly under £1000. At the time that site had between 2 and 4 million views a month. tl;dr few people will consider paying, far fewer will actually pay, even when it benefits them in the long term.

What really upset me about that is if everyone who looked at that charitable request and had simply coughed up £1, and most of them could (sometimes you can't; I've been in that position so I understand) a real difference could have been made.

If a charitable health-based cause pulls in so little cash, even fewer people will donate just to keep a site running.

nicbou2• 3 years ago

If you tried running anything on user donations, you would see that users are not that generous.

My website has generated quite a bit of goodwill in my community. It saves people considerable stress.

Donations make up less than a percent of my income. About one in ten or twenty thousand visitors donates. It does not cover my grocery bill. Even readers I personally advise rarely donate.

hans_castorp• 3 years ago

I have just visited the site, and I did not see any ads. But then I have uBlock installed in my Firefox.

dtgriscom• 3 years ago

Who's "they"?

The bottom of each page has a "Last updated" timestamp (recent) by Harriet Fell. I think this is she: https://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/fell . Perhaps Sheldon's surviving spouse?

Anthony-G• 3 years ago

On same pages, the person mentioned is John Allen while on others it says Harriet Fell. I’m not sure I’d trust this footer to be accurate as the “Last Updated” time-stamp is generated server-side to reflect the current time.

Well done on finding Harriet’s own home page. I really like the no-frills, non-fussy presentation style.

topaz0• 3 years ago

This site was super helpful to me when I was learning about bikes.

analog31• 3 years ago

Indeed, the tables of dimensions has been super valuable for maintaining bikes assembled from older parts. And the freely shared copies of Sutherland's manuals on internal gear hubs.

kemitchell• 3 years ago

Sheldon's site was hugely influential back in the day. Maybe even more so than the Park blue book.

You could find answers you didn't know to questions you didn't know to ask for hours and hours. And then some tangent about French derailleurs, besides.

I still have tools color-coded Sheldon's way.

jona-f• 3 years ago

It still is. Or have I missed a site that has similar amount and quality of information?

wyre2• 3 years ago

It still is. It just hasn’t kept up with the new technology of the bike industry and those vintage parts featured on Sheldon’s site are becoming harder and harder to find and when they are found are just as expensive, if not more expensive, than modern componentry.

KennyBlanken2• 3 years ago

Sheldon's site was a great resource because it was meticulously organized information written by someone immensely respected for having expert knowledge from decades of being a bike mechanic and massive bike nerd who seemingly spent every waking hour of his life either riding, tinkering with, or repairing bikes.

The site has been "maintained" (heavily edited and appended) by a guy named John Allen who I think mostly just knows a bunch of people in the retrogrouch scene (you know the types - $10k steel randonneur bikes), has never worked as a bike mechanic, seems to have little practical hands-on knowledge, and repeatedly pontificates about stuff he doesn't seem to have experience with. A lot of his additions and modifications seem to be his personal opinions.

I don't know if it's since been revised, but the stuff he wrote about belt drive bikes years ago made it clear he was just parroting shit he'd read elsewhere by people who had never ridden one for an extended period of time or owned one. Despite what he claims, they're virtually unbeatable for all-weather transportation bikes.

tchvil• 3 years ago

When I began building bikes 10 years ago, Sheldon's site was already like an old book in the library.

It was a reference for older topics, such as recently when I needed to understand the internal workings of a Sturmey Archer hub to fix one.

However, it hasn't been of much help for the new developments from the past 15 years since his passing.

While less organized and sometimes messy, YouTube and many other sites can answer any bike mechanic question. Even ChatGPT generally provides good answers

bjacokes2• 3 years ago

I go to https://www.reddit.com/r/bikewrench for bike maintenance Q&A. The responders there are often extremely knowledgeable, although it doesn't have the article structure of Sheldon's site.

ImprovedSilence• 3 years ago

It’s still my goto, but there’s a ton a new bike tech that’s come about since, e-shifters, disc brakes, bottom bracket standards. Things keep changing…

nablaone• 3 years ago

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/colorcode.html

That's great idea.

bhandziuk• 3 years ago

It doesn't really follow his suggestions but these are nice hex wrenches: https://www.wihatools.com/products/color-coded-hex-l-keys-9-...

Althuns• 3 years ago

In rock climbing you'll find that protective gear follows a similar system.[1] Though of course different manufacturers choose different color schemes mostly. Being able to quickly grab the right size piece that fits the crack you're placing into is exceedingly important.

[1] https://www.summitpost.org/size-matters-a-gear-comparison/69...

rhombocombus• 3 years ago

As a former pro bike mechanic I have never used the park blue book, I cannot count the number of times after he created the site that I leaned on Sheldon. I still use his wisdom and knowledge even having not professionally serviced bikes for 10 years. My retirement plan is to become wealthy enough to afford working in a bike shop again.

emptybits• 3 years ago

Back in the day, when not everyone felt the need yet to be on the world wide web, I knew at least a couple of mechanics and builders who would explain they'd heard of this Sheldon Brown guy and ... could I please print out some stuff from him like gear ratio tables or spoke length calculations or lacing patterns? :-) Simpler times. RIP Sheldon.

dghughes• 3 years ago

Aw shoot! Back in the early 1990s when I got on the Internet I also got back into biking. Sheldon's site seems like something 20-something me would really have liked.

comprev• 3 years ago

Like many others I learned to build wheels from this site. It was considered the Bible of bike things by many in the community.

skhr0680• 3 years ago

Use web.archive.org to find a version of this site from before Sheldon Brown died circa 2009. The new guy seems pleasant, but he doesn’t know his shit the way Mr Brown did

Edit:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080913084945/http://www.sheldo...

level87• 3 years ago

I used to use his site a lot, never noticed the spoke horizontal rules, very nice.

igpay• 3 years ago

I love this website - such a great repository of knowledge that presumably would've been lost to time otherwise. Although I don't remember there being so many ads last time I visited the site.

His wife, Harriet Fell, was one of my Computer Science professors at Northeastern. I really regret that I never took the time to talk to her about Sheldon. It always crossed my mind but never seemed like the right time.

harha• 3 years ago

The one on cleaning chains is my (scary) favorite: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html

mathieuh• 3 years ago

I grew more and more perplexed until I got to the bottom and read the disclaimer.

ndsipa_pomu3• 3 years ago

If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well

twic• 3 years ago

Real winners ride POWerwheels:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/power-wheel.html

ndsipa_pomu3• 3 years ago

The dent removal page is invaluable, even for modern carbon fibre frames

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/dent-removal.html

LanceH• 3 years ago

Is this the warning on fixed gear chains? Warning received, I'm not clicking on that again.

AndrewVos• 3 years ago

I love sites like this. Sheldon’s site is great.

I’m more of a runner nowadays, and this site is like Sheldon’s but for runners https://fellrnr.com/wiki/Main_Page

MezzoDelCammin6• 3 years ago

oh damn. The article on cutting up shoes toeboxes still scarily hangs at the back of my mind somewhere

tokai2• 3 years ago

Ken Rockwell for bicycles - but good?

MezzoDelCammin6• 3 years ago

"but good"? Have I missed something? I still occasionally use Rockwell as a bit of a reference (even if slightly dated).

tokai2• 3 years ago

So have I. But when he gives tips like "just turn your white balance nice and yellow for warm pictures" its functional but not very adept. Other than that I strongly suspect that some of the gear reviews has been done with having said equipment.

dockd• 3 years ago

He gives advice like "no one uses a tripod anymore" then a few months later a glowing review of a tripod appears. What should you make of that?

dddddaviddddd• 3 years ago

This site was invaluable for maintaining my early '70s Peugeot bike. It always had the right measurements, and great practical ideas for solving problems. For example, because my frame spacing was too narrow for modern wheels, I decided to have a shop bend it ('cold set') to the right size. Without this site I never would have thought of it.

askvictor• 3 years ago

The place where I learned that a 26 x 1.75 tyre is a different size to a 26 x 1 3/4 tyre.

Zufriedenheit• 3 years ago

I really like this german channel for bike repairs: https://www.youtube.com/@nlz.fahrrad It also shows tricks to improvise if you don't have all the tools. Doesn't upload that often though.

jamil7• 3 years ago

He is responsible for getting me interested in track/fixed gear bikes and using them as daily beaters years ago, very minimal maintenance. I still ride road and cross on the weekends, though.

jacquesm6• 3 years ago

This is one of those sites that I simply loved. And it is also very much the way I think the web should work.

flowingfocus• 3 years ago

I recently built my first wheel from scratch. Everything I needed to know was collected on this fantastic page on wheel building https://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

Learning to build wheels is an important milestone in the education of an apprentice mechanic. A "mechanic" who has not mastered this basic skill cannot be considered to be a fully-qualified professional, and will always feel inferior to those who can list wheelbuilding among their skills.

HankB99• 3 years ago

Another great resource for that is "The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst Brandt. Oops. I guess it's out of print as copies on Amazon are going for $35 and up. My local library should have a copy as I managed to buy two and IIRC I donated one.

Not to take anything away from Sheldon Brown. I've spent plenty of time on his site. And of course Brown has a page about Brandt: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/

thimkerbell• 3 years ago

Library staff seem to prefer selling all books that are donated to them. Are there exceptions to this?

c0nsumer5• 3 years ago

IMO the Wheelpro [1] book is far better for actually building a wheel. Brandt's book is great, but it's more an engineering textbook explaining why the (generally) strongest wheel is three-cross with butted (swaged) spokes and how spoke tying is irrelevant.

A lot of Brandt's conclusions aren't as relevant in the modern world of carbon fiber rims, which are so stiff that all sorts of interesting things can be done with regards to spoke count.

(For those that aren't aware, carbon rims are so stiff they don't really get trued. They need to be centered so there's no wobble/runout, but tensioning an individual spoke, or even a few near each other, won't create a hop like it does on a flexible metal rim. So building a carbon wheel is more an exercise in evenly bringing up tension while maintaining proper dish and horizontal and lateral centering, but they don't get trued in the traditional sense.)

[1] https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

xtiansimon• 3 years ago

I built my first bike—a fixie—using Sheldon’s site in 2005.

ubermonkey• 3 years ago

What a wonderful and pure example of the early web! Brown just put this stuff out there because it was helpful to people, and the web made that easy to do.

I miss that version of the Internet.

adnmcq999• 3 years ago

Legend. I like watching the park tools videos w Calvin Jones https://youtu.be/3UuWAtEs3WI

alxjsn• 3 years ago

I love Sheldon Brown’s site. If you’re into motorcycles this website is also gold: http://www.dansmc.com/mc_repaircourse.htm

ho_schi• 3 years ago

If you’re German speaking:

https://wikipedalia.com

They try to preserve and extend the knowledge there.

Thanks to Sheldon Brown I’ve learned how important it is to place the front derailleur as low and far at front as possible. Reduces or eliminates the need for trimming (Trim-Position) and provides better shifting.

dredmorbius• 3 years ago

Somewhat surprisingly, despite five earlier submissions over the years, no discussion:

<https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Sheldon%20Brown%27s%20Bicycle%...>

johnnyAghands• 3 years ago

I was just on this this weekend (reading up of disc breaks). Obviously, the content can be out-dated, but that's not why I keep coming back. Something about the clarity of Sheldon's writing :) plus a lot of the content provide foundational information.

Anyway, I was also thinking perhaps I could help modernize the website itself in my spare time. If anyone is interested dm me.

zahma• 3 years ago

Amazingly useful resource even today. Because bikes are timeless, a vintage model might only be serviceable with the help of an experienced mechanic or Sheldon Brown’s site. I’m exaggerating since there clearly are other fora of knowledge and advice, but how did those contributors learn? Many roads lead back to Sheldon Brown’s site.

ElemenoPicuares• 3 years ago

Got a lot of use out of his site over the years. What's nice about it is that he's so friendly. I get mixed vibes from various bike communities though.

I always enjoy the folks in bike shops in the cities I live in. I'm definitely not in their 'scene,' but they're super passionate about bikes and cycling as a primary mode of transportation and really want to get as many people on board as possible. I've heard people accuse them of being elitist or whatever, but even in the most notoriously hipster spots, I've always found them just as happy to fix up some kid's beat up used Walmart Schwinn as they are troubleshooting some alignment problem on someone's custom fixie.

That's feels very different to me than the parts of the more "serious" long-distance/touring/sports cyclist crowd I've been exposed to. The folks I've known in person that don lycra and speed down pretty country roads didn't seem unusual, but in groups, they seem like one of the most gatekeep-y, Mean Girls crowds I've encountered. Better have the 'approved' goals, gear, practices and perspectives if you want to sit with them at lunch. Practical transportation cyclists should keep walking, unless they're doing it in full racing gear with clips, wrap-around shades and a helmet that looks like a heavier duty version of what they wore in tron. If you're not cycling hard enough to need a shower once you get to work, you're not really cycling.

Maybe it's a tiny vocal minority? Maybe they're people that are "online only" enthusiasts trying to be cool? I dunno... but it just seems very punitively conformist.

jdfellow• 3 years ago

There's a big old rules list[0], which I can never tell is satirical or not, that those road bike racers adhere to.

0: https://www.velominati.com/

c0nsumer5• 3 years ago

Like any good trolling site, a mix of both. See Poe's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

pjs_• 3 years ago

The OG... the master.

barbazoo• 3 years ago

I find it odd that it's called a "disk" brake but the one part that most resembles a disk is called a "rotor".

UniverseHacker• 3 years ago

Sheldon Brown was a huge inspiration for me in life and work, despite not being a bike mechanic myself. I love his iconoclastic courage, humor, depth, and meticulousness, as well as the grace and humor he had about his old age and poor health.

Not many people realize how controversial much of his advice and ideas were when he wrote these. He was such a big influence that his once controversial ideas on things like safe (vehicular) cycling technique, tire tread, fixed gear bikes, cadence, and chain lubrication were one heresy- just suggesting these things to other cyclists could inspire intense rage, but everyone pretty much accepts them now.

deutz_allis• 3 years ago

One of the best resources on cycling technical and practical knowledge. Without hesitation, as a former pro mechanic the shop i worked in referenced him often and for some of the trickier stuff too. Even as the industry now is getting more advanced with a bunch of new standards the site remains valuable.

kumarsw• 3 years ago

I'm sad to hear that not only the man himself but Harris Cyclery passed sometime in the middle of COVID. For the younger folks, it's hard to appreciate how influential his kludgey-looking website was. Pre-YouTube it was the go-to source for bike repair info, and was likely the catalyst for the fixed-gear craze of the early 2010s.

craig• 3 years ago

I've been building up a vintage Fuji and have been using Sheldon's site to find data on old standards. It's been incredibly useful. On a similar note I've also used https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site/home.html to look up derailleur specifics there is a lot of info there.

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

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