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THE VOICE OF SHELDON - Radio 3RRR interview What did Sheldon sound like? Many people, including me, only knew him via the written word on his expansive, chatty website. Carl Hemmings sent along this telephone interview with Sheldon on Melbourne indie radio station 3RRR's program "Along for the Ride", recorded in January 2008 - less than a month before he passed away. A bonus (for American listeners) is the sound of the interviewer's broad Aussie accent ... enjoy. Listen to interview (12 min, mp3), thank you Carl and 3RRR Melbourne - one of the few radio stations worth listening to, last time I was Downunder). Note to other Sheldon tribute pages: If you use this interview please fully credit 3RRR andsay nice things about them. Even nicer, share this page, bikefriday.com/sheldonbrown Scroll to the bottom of this page for some tributes from the Fold. Send yours for possible inclusion (bandwith permitting) to lynettec@bikefriday.com |
"Did you hear about the passing of Sheldon Brown?" I got this very sad message on my Blackberry somewhere between Ka'a'a'wa and Haleiwa on a gray, drizzly Hawaiian day – a sense of foreboding was in the air. If you'd asked me what Sheldon was doing that very moment, I'd have said, perhaps he's out on his new Greenspeed trike, filming his commute with one of his latest cameras – maybe that twin lens Kodak camera I asked him about? I never met Sheldon in person, but I thought of him as the Grand Wiki of bicycle bells, whistles and everything below the saddle, a Virtual Velopedia of all things spoked, toothed and human powered. Trawling the labyrinth of has fascinating website reveals a warm and human tech geek, a droll wit with diverse interests - from cameras to opera singing to world radio, France and his family, and even a funny bone page, like this article on a "real man's" bicycle seat. Generous with his knowledge, he even taught me how to write half decent HTML, which is more than I can say for my ancient computer science degree. At Bike Friday, we consulted his famous Gear Inch Calculator a great deal; for the longest time it was the only one that gave you ratios for the 20-inch wheel – in both 451 and 406 sizes, and the internal 3x7 hub. It helped us convince sceptics that yes, small wheels could keep up with big wheels, all engines being equal. And way back in 1996, the Pocket Rocket was mentioned in Sheldon's Seat Post Diameter Chart ... |
Recently, Harris Cyclery, where Sheldon was somewhat of a celebrity mechanic, became a Bike Friday dealer and tikit agent. Sheldon had even mentioned Bike Friday in the same sentence as his beloved Raleigh Twenty: With suitable equipment, it can approach the performance of a Bike Friday at a much lower price ... Why, thank you, Sheldon! I was aware of his health issues – not wanting to burden people with 'the gory details', he'd reluctantly shared them via a special web page, but was self-effacing to the last, dismissing his growing MS symptoms 'a damn inconvenience'. I tried to visit Sheldon on my 2006 visit to Natick near Boston for a Route66 presentation, passing right by the shop. It was closed, and the above photo was as close as I physically got to the great man. I did have a personal interaction with him - an email exchange over cameras. For posterity, I include our conversation below. Just like we'll remember the late MTB pioneer John Finley Scott, who became Bike Friday owner a few weeks before his tragic death, we'll think of Sheldon with respect and affection every time we hit the button on his gear inch calculator. It was made by Sheldon, it works. - LC |
 SHELDON ON DIGITAL CAMERAS Sheldon, If you were to publish a list of better-simpler-cleaner cameras in decreasing order of those attributes, it would be a service almost comparable to your gear inch calculator! What I am getting here, is that the lens is the most important thing. My Lumix is supposed to have a Leica lens... As I said, all cameras do this to some extent if you allow direct sunlight to fall on the front of the lens. I failed to mention another old standby...just shade the lens with your hand! I'm really not up to speed on the constantly evolving camera marketplace, no longer in that business. (Even though I'm a long-time equipment junkie...see: http://sheldonbrown.org/cameras ) The Kodak 570 is unique because it is the only pocketable digicam with a serious wide angle lens. I've always liked working with why dangles, so as soon as I heard it had been announced I had to have one! The wide angle is really good for "filming" from a moving bike (or trike ... I'm currently dealing with trying to make a satisfactory mount for the Greenspeed.) At 1:58 PM -0700 4/9/07, Lynette at Bike Friday wrote: Sheldon, I was hunting for that link to your health page but you keep it nicely hidden. I believe people really DO want to know about what is going on with you, it's an antidote to all the I-don't-wanna-get-involved disconnect in this society. Doon't get me started on that. So by making your page accessible is not whining at all, it's incredibly generous … Thank you. As for cameras ... so, you're saying your camera would also do what mine does in sunlight? Have you tried that? ALL cameras do that when the light is wrong, it's just a matter of degree. Better, simpler, cleaner lenses do it less. At 8:27 AM -0700 4/9/07, Lynette at Bike Friday wrote: Sheldon, I appreciated your page on the dual lens Kodak, and I thought that you, of all people, might be able to help me ... I've been shooting biking movies using my 5 mpix Panasonic Lumix and I notice the footage has pinlines and lens flaring in the sun. Now this does not bother me unduly - I always felt it was like the flare you get from looking through sunglasses, giving it a more authentic feel, but wondered if it is a fault with the camera design - no one, not even Panasonic, seems willing or able to tell me. I am attaching a sample clip, compressed with Quicktime, so you can see the effect. Does the Kodak do this? Do all cameras do this? All _lenses_ do this. Lens flare is a fact of life if you allow the sun to shine on the surface of the lens. Better quality lenses, with better, more layered anti-reflection coating do it less. Simpler lenses, with fewer elements (i.e., not zooms) also do it less. _Clean_ lenses do it less. My Kodak has Schneider lenses. The zoom lens is quite good, but the wide angle is spectacular. The wide angle is particularly good for bike-mounted recording. Professional cameras have rectangular lens shades that prevent light from outside the frame from striking the front element of the lens. Unfortunately, suitable lens shades (a.k.a. lens hoods) don't seem to exist for pocket cameras. And what about sound? I've been very pleased with the sound quality, though I wish it was stereo. I read that your cycling legs weren't operating for a while - but thankfully, you seem to have now recovered? No such luck. Thanks for your concern. I'm bearing up OK, some days better than others. I guess I'll just have to play out whatever cards I've been dealt. I'll continue updating http://sheldonbrown.com/health as news comes in... All the best, |
I FIRST MET Sheldon Brown in 1982 at the Long Beach Bike Show. I had just won the Great American Bike Race (the first RAAM) and I was the guest of several bicycle component companies at the bike show. For some reason Sheldon and I got talking in the aisle and discussing cycling component treads. He was easy to talk to and not a "know it all" engineering type guy. I could tell he had a common sense way of thinking about bicycles. He asked me if I wanted to see his latest invention. He reached in his briefcase and pulled out a Teflon coated bike chain that never needed lubricating. He wanted me to try it on my bike and let him know what I thought. He said he made three of them and I was honored he let me try one. That was my first meeting with Sheldon Brown. We would continue to see each other at the bike show circuit for the next 10 years. He always had something nice to say tome about cycling goals and ideas. - RAAM champ, Lon Haldeman www.pactour.com P.S. His Teflon chain had potential but I never saw any for sale in the bikemarket. WONDERFUL page on Sheldon, Lynette and I especially enjoyed the interview and hearing him talk about his beginnings in cycling and early shop days. I spoke with him a few times when I was researching stories while at Bicycling Magazine. He was super helpful and nice. Then, as his A COUPLE of years ago I was retained as a consultant by an insurance company that had been sent an invoice for several thousands of dollars by a bicyclist who had to replace his bike after a crash. The insurance company wanted to know whether the charge was fair. How would I determine the replacement cost of a bike four or five years old? I called Sheldon and in about 30 seconds he had looked up the bike in a shop catalog and determined that the amount listed as the price of the frame was actually that on the entire, fully-equipped bicycle -- and then there was in addition an itemized charge for each of the components. Sheldon never asked for any compensation to do me this service - he got me out of a pickle and strictly speaking he did my legwork for me! - John S. Allen SOME YEARS BACK I corresponded with him re the Schlumpf bottom bracket. I was truly impressed with his command of detail. A real loss. We have some one out here very much like him, Grant Peterson of Rivendell. I subscribe to his catalog and newsletter just to soak up the wisdom - Dan Kaljian, CA A UNIQUE VOICE that will be missed, especially as I commute in the rain on a touring bike with fenders, Carradice bag with my Kodak V570 camera. I visited Harris Cyclery once (my sister lives about 15 min away) and met Sheldon as he arrived in the morning, riding his Quickbeam. I wrote to him after that and he identified the proper tires for my old kids' bike, a lugged frame steel bike with 20-inch (451) wheels - JB Friday, Hilo, HI |
Sheldon Brown Tribute Page by Ifny Lachance, Pedal Revolutionary Radio Show Harris Cyclery Bike Friday tikitTM agent |