Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Sheldon Brown, RIP

There are various types of cyclists. Some are competitive, some are solitary, some do it out of financial necessity, some do it from sheer love. Most of them, at some point or another, have been directed to the wisdom that is the web site of Sheldon Brown, a real character of a guy who was famous for his cycling helmet with the bald eagle statuette glued to the top.

Sheldon Brown died Sunday, and the world is poorer for his loss.

Brown's death is especially poignant to me for another reason. Brown wrote later in his life of having to give up his beloved bicycles because of Multiple Sclerosis (MS for short). We had to move my mother to a nursing home last year because her MS had progressed to the point where she could no longer live at home. And this has quietly reminded me why I serve on the committee for our annual Bike MS event in central Iowa.

This is why we ride...to create a world free of MS.

2 comments:

Its dangerous business walking... said...

sadness
really, sadness.

oi.
and cat ass?
that's ...that's just gross and I don't even like cats.
hmph.

cm said...

It's a loss to the community. What a great guy! I was just on his website this morning, looking up the wheel numbers for my bike computer. He had documented all kinds of bike computers and the wheel measurements. There is no encyclopedia of bikes like Sheldon's site, it's been a fantastic resource I've used for years.

And he truly and openly loved bikes and shared that with us as well. So sorry you had to go Sheldon. You'll be missed by so many.