Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info
240 points - today at 3:40 PM
SourceThis 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/
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
today at 6:31 PM
Same. I built my first wheel according to his specs. His whole website is so helpful and thoughtfully written. RIP.
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Ah that’s the reason why reading several articles on the site it felt out of date.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.
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.
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.
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.
cbm-vic-20
today at 9:37 PM
And the shop itself closed in 2021 after being open for nearly 70 years. I purchased my Brompton there.
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 literally read your entire blog, at least twice
if i had found a cycling crazie to date back in the days, i would certainly use "building a tandem" section of that blog for suuuure
This is such a great website. I have enjoyed reading the articles in the past. It was the final push that inspired me to build my own wheel set instead of buying a complete when I was building my new mountain bike piece by piece. The art and zen (and frustration of trying to feed a shift/brake line through a frame), I tell ya.
Sheldon's website is such an awesome relic of the internet we all miss. It still has a ton of relevant information if you ever find yourself dealing with obscure wheel sizes or something like that. Love it. RIP.
manithree
today at 9:11 PM
I lost my "Clear Creek Bike Book" in the 1980's but eventually Sheldon made me not miss it at all.
It's not as comprehensive, and more corporate than Sheldon's site, but I currently love Park Tool's youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@parktool). They shamelessly mention their tools, but they frequently give alternatives like, you can get this park tool for pushing your disc brake pads back into place, or you can just use a plastic tire tool.
foco_tubi
today at 5:51 PM
Sheldon was a wealth of information when I first started tinkering on my vintage 3-speed back in 2007. I would pore over these simple pages for hours in my dorm at college instead of studying. That led to dropping out and working in the bike industry for almost 10 years. It was a great preparation in problem solving and systems-oriented thinking before I got into programming.
I’ve learned about that website only four years ago. It is still helpful, teaches me how to install front derailleurs properly (as deep and far to the front as possible, better chain line with less trimming and better shifting).
The German Wikipedalia tries to safe some stuff.
I always loved this quote from here: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/stuck-seatposts.html
> To update an old saying, 28 grams of prevention are worth 454 grams of cure.
I have a vague recollection of someone using a cheap old saddle and a rubber mallet to unstick a seat post.
Friends don’t let friends put aluminum posts in steel frames. Especially if those friends ride in the rain instead of wussing out and calling for someone to pick them up.
simlevesque
today at 5:34 PM
RIP to this legendary hacker.
Amen. If you've ever had to deal with repairing French frames from before the 1980s you know that finding a memory leak in a race condition is easy in comparison.
wampwampwhat
today at 6:56 PM
I'm going to repeat this verbatim in my next technical interview. I still have nightmares about an old peugeot px10
This was a major influence for me, both getting into single speed and fixed gear biking before the craze, and building geo cities sites with my friends in high school
bookstore-romeo
today at 7:58 PM
This is an incredible ressource without which I feel so many bikes and bike parts would go to waste. At the bike coop I volunteer at we’re trying to follow Sheldon’s footsteps by collecting information and procedures that are about making bikes & parts last for as long as they possibly can. What’s truly amazing is that all that documentation is amazing for both low-resource repairs on the cheapest of old parts and vintage part enthusiasts.
I think Sheldon Brown’s impact is a valuable lesson on sustainable engineering and the enormous role documentation plays in it
I used to work on bikes professionally, and this was the first place we went for help. Even today, it's one of the clearest resources out there
Legend! I was a bicycle mechanic for a decade and this guy was our jezus! He influenced so many of my creative bicycle builds and exposed me to things like Alex Singer, Rene Herse, bicycle quarterly etc.. Big love for Sheldon and all his passion and work.
A wealth of knowledge here, especially helpful for wheelbuilding and checking the compatibility of archaic sizing systems. Lennard Zinn is another great reference in bike maintenance: https://lennardzinn.substack.com/
sebastian_z
today at 7:59 PM
There is (was?) a bike shop in Pittsburgh, Kraynick's Bike Shop [1], where you could bring your bike and use their tools. It was nice, and I appreciate the DIY ethics and generosity.
[1] https://kraynicksbikeshop.weebly.com/
I get the sense that there are a good number of these around the world. There's one I go to Melbourne sometimes, it's awesome.
https://thebikeshed.org.au/
I learned wheel building many years ago from Sheldon's website and that lead to many great memories fixing other racer's wheels around camp fires in my 20s.
A fantastic resource!
matsemann
today at 8:01 PM
Similar story. As a student I bought an old bike and restored it thanks to lots of info I found from Sheldon. And building a wheel was such a fun but weird experience. Part mechanics, part art.
I ended up writing my thesis on bicycle wheels after this. Or, it's a thesis on optimization algorithms, but I managed to play around with optimizing wheels as the "real world application". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10410813
chromatin
today at 6:24 PM
When I was a young(er) postdoc and had to overhaul my bicycle -- my main transportation to work-- this site was invaluable. Forever grateful to Sheldon.
So happy to see this featured here! Had been tinkering with bikes a long time before finding Sheldon’s site, but when I did I was dumbstruck by the amount of insight. And to top that, what a person he was. RIP
diggyhole
today at 5:45 PM
Thank you for sharing. This is wholesome as f*ck.
sorbusherra
today at 7:10 PM
i worked as a bicycle mechanic when I got completely tired of it-world. This website saved my ass numerous times while fixing bicycles. Absolutely legendary webdesign also that just works well.
I'm so glad they went back to the old design.
There was a point a few years back where someone did a site revamp with modern CSS and all that horrible jazz in clear attempts to monetize this incredible resource.
Happy to hear they reverted
sebnukem2
today at 8:15 PM
A web site as old as the internet, and still relevant.
carabiner
today at 5:26 PM
Random tidbit, his daughter is a researcher/mathematician at OpenAI.
hackingonempty
today at 5:32 PM
...and his widow, Harriet Fell, is a CS Professor (emerita) at Northeastern[0], and an accomplished cyclist who completed Paris-Brest-Paris (a 1200km ride and to qualify you have to complete 200km, 300km, 400km, and 600km rides in the 8 months leading up to it.)
0: https://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/fell/
foco_tubi
today at 5:47 PM
For PBP2027 you have all of 2026, as well as 2027 leading up to registration, to complete the required BRMs.
I'm riding my qualifying 300k tomorrow!
dan-bailey
today at 7:16 PM
Oh thank god. I was planning on a 200km, 300km, and 400km this year, all as mental preparation, and then having to blitz next year by traveling to warmer locales. I
I'm doing my 200km at the end of April, and my 300km in early July, followed by a 400km gravel in early August. Going to be a grind.
Good luck tomorrow!
eschneider
today at 7:38 PM
Nice! Old me and my old bike are sticking to 200kms this year. :)
Allez! Allez! Bonne chance pour demain!
steve_adams_86
today at 7:42 PM
I tried qualifying for PBP with some friends and we were fried on the 600. We did some longer rides, but never so intensively and without rest. Such good times. Maybe one day (likely when my kids are grown) I'll try again. I still dream of eating so much French food after annihilating myself on a bicycle. It sound incredible.
I TA’ed for Harriet, she’s awesome!
neoromantique
today at 9:19 PM
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?
A single user's one-off recursive wget seems fine? Browsers also support it iirc, individual pages at very least (and saved to the same place, the links will work).
No doubt it's already in many archive sites though, you could just fetch from them instead of the original?
neoromantique
today at 10:27 PM
I ask in more general sense, if there is a way to fetch this stuff directly from webarchive or something along those lines.
Gotta hit the search I feel :)
Still awesome.
And the web design!
Used to be my worship place along with the crazyguyonabike and Ken Kifer