A customer of mine instant messaged me the other day, all excited to discover that Sheldon Brown was on a Bike Friday. Sadly, a close inspection of the picture and his website revealed that it was just another one of his Raleigh Twenties, which he claims “with suitable equipment […] can approach the performance of a Bike Friday at a much lower price.” While I have my doubts about that, I can say that Sheldon Brown has a nearly encyclopedic website about bike-everything. He’s got some quirky ideas and likes Biopace but he is a fellow fixed gear freak and is familiar with just about every obscure component known to man, even French ones. If there’s a piece of info you need about bikes, it’s probably on his website.
He’s made little Harris Cyclery on the map because of his overwhelming bike lust and constant presence over all the bike-related spheres on the Internet. The online store is very impressive and makes getting lots of hard-to-find parts easy. Heck, you can even special order through them care of big time distributor Quality Bicycle Parts. And all this is because of Sheldon’s computer savvy & passion for cycles.
The bad news is that though neither of these interests have waned for Sheldon, his ability to enjoy the latter has. I was shocked to see a post on the fixed gear mailing list saying that he would not be participating in the Interbike demo because he could not ride. He provided a link to his journal that included comments about MRIs and not be stable on the bike. Looking deeper, he’s got a page specifically to monitor the progress of his health issues. It seems the latest is that he cannot ride anything besides a Greenspeed trike and even that’s a little shaky.
It seems that he has developed the very rare and mostly untreatable primary-progressive version of Multiple Sclerosis. There’s currently not too much hope for slowing it or stopping it. It’s almost that same grim prognosis that Lance Armstrong was given so long ago.. almost. In any case, Lance rallied the troops together to get the support he needed to beat it. Why can’t we do the same thing for this equally important luminary of the bike industry? First off, send Sheldon your love and best wishes. If you have extra money, donate to the MS Society. If you don’t, consider becoming a rider in the MS Bike Tour (which is in nearly every state) and work hard to raise funds for the Society. This will provide the money necessary to do the research to find a treatment for this debilitating disease. And hopefully we can get Sheldon fixed again. No pun intended.
foldable walter 
November 3, 2006 at 1:14 am
Here’s a Friday in full on battle dress (appropriate for a road warrior) outside Sheldon’s store:
http://www.galfromdownunder.com/galleries/WEB-boston06-gallery/pages/P1030481.htm
I understand he’s not been well, if you check out his health blog. He’ll sure find a Friday much kinder to ride. In fact, kind people ride them. The kind of people you want to hang with. Hurrah for kind! Why are BFs are people-friendly … ?
http://www.bikefriday.com/specialneeds
and
http://www.bikefriday.com/seniors
and
http://www.bikefriday.com/kids
and
http://www.bikefriday.com/women
November 6, 2006 at 6:55 am
um, last time I checked we didn’t make a trike.
November 7, 2006 at 6:24 pm
I had not heard about Sheldon’s health condition. Thanks for mentioning it; I will send him a message. Though I have never met him, I have found his website to be an incredible source of information for many years. You are right, he is a VERY important person in the bike industry. I wish him well.
November 9, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Sheldon’s nature to make note of everything reminds me a lot of Justin Hall. In fact, I remember the day a friend and I had a question about something or other and decided to (of course!) look it up on Sheldon’s website. When we went there we were greeted with a picture of a hairless Sheldon and stood there in shock for a good minute or two. Then I made my friend a bet that if I clicked on the picture, there would be a whole page of information ABOUT being hairless. He laughed, but lost. In fact, we discovered the odd fact (this is always the case on Sheldon’s website with any topic) that his wife had never seen his face!!
Sheldon has ultimately contributed a huge body of readily accessible technical information based on his own mechanical experiences.. and his experiences as a lifelong cyclist. If he could not ride, how could he continue to tell us why the next best thing is or isn’t the next best thing? We need Sheldon!!!
November 9, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Thanks for passing this information along. He’s done a lot for the bicycling public. Great idea to join or donate to an MS bike tour!
November 9, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Gene, thanks for the comments and keep spreading the word. I think we can really make something happen.
Perhaps we should start a fund specifically for Sheldon since his medical costs are certainly going to increase. Any takers?
November 10, 2006 at 7:05 am
Hey look what I found. Props to this Japanese site that was linked here in comments by the elusive “ak”. Can’t read a damn thing there, but hey..
November 10, 2006 at 7:05 am
An irony that a commenter noted at my blog — Sheldon doesn’t like the idea of bike-a-thon rides. More at http://www.sheldonbrown.com/thons.html
November 10, 2006 at 7:11 am
Wow, I’ve never delved THAT deeply into his website. Needless to say, this was an opinion he formed 8 years ago. It also only looks at one particular aspect of such events and ignores the fact that many walk-a-thoners find walking and running fun! However, this leads to my other thought– creating a fund for Sheldon. We could put together a bank account like we have done for Gaylynn.
November 10, 2006 at 8:12 pm
[…] Walter shows what one can do to help: There’s currently not too much hope for slowing [the disease] or stopping it. It’s almost that same grim prognosis that Lance Armstrong was given so long ago.. almost. In any case, Lance rallied the troops together to get the support he needed to beat it. Why can’t we do the same thing for this equally important luminary of the bike industry? First off, send Sheldon your love and best wishes. If you have extra money, donate to the MS Society. If you don’t, consider becoming a rider in the MS Bike Tour (which is in nearly every state of the USA) and work hard to raise funds for the Society. This will provide the money necessary to do the research to find a treatment for this debilitating disease. And hopefully we can get Sheldon fixed again. No pun intended. […]