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Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

sheldonbrown.com

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Re: Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

#61

Post by suncemoje »

klum wrote: post #24
keithjl wrote: post #4

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. [1] http://dansmc.com/

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!

Re: Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

#62

Post by analog31 »

luqtas wrote: post #57

i built a set of wheels following his instructions, using my brake pads as the reference for centering and truing, rode dozen of thousands kilometers on them, daily, part of my courier job. all the wheels i had after that old Mongoose were also built the same way. i cycle a 1997 Trek 430 as my main transportation and i freaking love it. soldered a custom rack for panniers after its geometry. farewell Sheldon, i liter…

Similar story here. Sheldon’s site took the mystery out of wheel building, at least for my basic needs. I was motivated by acquiring a couple of ancient Sturmey Archer hubs and wanting to put them on modern rims. Those wheels have been bulletproof.

Re: Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

#64

Post by ssl-3 »

kccqzy wrote: post #45
rsingel wrote: post #14

R.I.P. Sheldon https://www.wired.com/2008/02/sheldon-brown-w/

Ah that’s the reason why reading several articles on the site it felt out of date.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.

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.)

Re: Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

#66

Post by ssl-3 »

neoromantique wrote: post #52

Ask HN: How does one archive websites like this without being a d-ck? I want to save this for offline use, but I think recursive wget is a bit poor manners, is there established way one should approach it, get it from archive somehow?

In the old-web days, I just used wget with slow pacing (and by "pacing" I mean: I don't need it to be done today or even this week, so if it takes a rather long time then that's fine. Slow helped keep me from mucking up the latency on my dial-up connection, too.)

I don't think that's being a dick for old-web sites that still exist today. Most of the information is text, the photos tend to be small, it's all generally static (ie, light-weight to serve), and the implicit intent is for people to use it.

But it's pretty slow-moving, so getting it from archive.org would probably suffice if being zero-impact is the goal.

(Or, you know: Just email the dude that runs it like it's 1998 again, say hi, and ask. In this particular instance, it's still being maintained.)

Re: Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

#68

Post by ak217 »

If you liked Sheldon Brown (who was a treasure but the content is out of date now), definitely check out the Park Tool videos on YouTube. Calvin Jones, their director of education, recently retired after building an incredible library of instructional videos. As an amateur bike mechanic, I wouldn't have been able to build or maintain my bikes without Calvin's videos.

Re: Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

#69

Post by smackeyacky »

luqtas wrote: post #57

i built a set of wheels following his instructions, using my brake pads as the reference for centering and truing, rode dozen of thousands kilometers on them, daily, part of my courier job. all the wheels i had after that old Mongoose were also built the same way. i cycle a 1997 Trek 430 as my main transportation and i freaking love it. soldered a custom rack for panniers after its geometry. farewell Sheldon, i liter…

I did build a tandem based on Sheldon’s website. Never used it in anger on the road just cycle paths, used to have two kids on the back and a third following on their own bike. Because of the age differences between the kids it was one activity we could enjoy together on the local cycle paths.

It’s amazing what a difference just a little generosity of knowledge can make in other peoples lives.

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