Sheldon Brown’s Website might close?

[Spinner]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

It's always funny to me that everyone talks about "Sheldon Brown's wife." I heard of Harriet Fell long before I heard of Sheldon. She finished PBP back when that was a very unlikely thing for an American to do. She also took the same bicycle frame design course as Klein did, and the frame she built was used in a lawsuit to defeat Klein's patent on the stuff he learned in that class.

Imagine the dinner conversation between Harriet and Sheldon, or their discourse when riding.

I've never personally met Sheldon, however we did exchange multiple emails when I was doing the build-out of my first Serotta in 2002. He was very generous with his time when answering my technical questions; his expertise was invaluable. If you have never visited Sheldon's site, go there. You will learn much about bicycling from a witty, smart guy.

It's also sad to loose Harris Cyclery. Unfortunately, I never visited their physical store, however I was an online customer. They carried many hard-to-find parts.

[NHAero]

I just emailed Harriet and she says that she and John Allen intend to keep the site up. They may look for sponsorship but the site hosting cost is not burdensome at this time.

Unterhausen has part of the story on the MIT aluminum bike frame project and the Cannondale lawsuit. Much more of it is here.

When Sheldon and Harriet got together, they told me that they figured out that I was the only person that knew them both before they met. So they were annoyed that I didn't make the obvious introduction!

Harriet will be 77 this year. She has a custom Seven built 2-3 years ago and rode over 8,000 miles in 2020. I visited her a couple of months ago and she had the old Holdsworth she rode in PBP on the trainer in the middle of the living room. She is a brilliant, generous, soulful person - Sheldon found a real gem!

[Ed-B]

I met Sheldon many years ago. He was an incredibly knowledgeable guy. The shop wasn't all that impressive as I recall, however. If you went there from someplace like Belmont Wheelworks you'd be unimpressed. Sheldon was the intellectual value at Harris.

I still have the souvenir from that day:

[Spinner]

A Great Story ...

Originally Posted by NHAero

I just emailed Harriet and she says that she and John Allen intend to keep the site up. They may look for sponsorship but the site hosting cost is not burdensome at this time.

Unterhausen has part of the story on the MIT aluminum bike frame project and the Cannondale lawsuit. Much more of it is here.

When Sheldon and Harriet got together, they told me that they figured out that I was the only person that knew them both before they met. So they were annoyed that I didn't make the obvious introduction!

Harriet will be 77 this year. She has a custom Seven built 2-3 years ago and rode over 8,000 miles in 2020. I visited her a couple of months ago and she had the old Holdsworth she rode in PBP on the trainer in the middle of the living room. She is a brilliant, generous, soulful person - Sheldon found a real gem!

[paredown]

I'm another person who never met Sheldon but corresponded with him. I was digging around in the back history of the Falcon brand--and he was interested in that whole genealogy of Brit bikes--so I wrote up what I had figured out at the time, and he published it as part of his listing of classic racing bikes and their value.

Glad to think the website will stay up--I still refer to it from time to time when I start a new project, or if I am unfamiliar with what I have in front of me...

[dzxc]

Wow, I used to use Sheldon’s site for answers on everything. Very nostalgic. I don’t have any direct links to the maintainers, but am happy to take over everything and keep it up if that’s something that would keep it running.

[robt57]

I'll bet my Nago EP that site will get hosted elsewhere if/when Harris leaves it for dead...

[GregL]

Originally Posted by NHAero

I just emailed Harriet and she says that she and John Allen intend to keep the site up. They may look for sponsorship but the site hosting cost is not burdensome at this time.

Thank you so much for reaching out to Harriet. I would be heartbroken if Sheldon’s treasure trove of knowledge was lost to future generations of cyclists. I never met him in person, but enjoyed discussing bikes with him (and oldpotatoe!) on the rec.bicycles newsgroups. I spoke with him just once on the phone to order the then-rare Kool Stop Salmon Dura brake pads. A brilliant man who generously shared his knowledge!

Greg

[schwa86]

I’m going to push back on this somewhat. Having spent a decent amount of time in the basement storage area over the years, they had an amazing amount of stuff, well organized. But I do think over the years they lost some good staff/mechanics, and towards the end got a little thin. All this said I do my own wrenching and never relied on them to work on my bikes... and I agree I’d go someplace else for a fitting.

Originally Posted by benb

Sad but maybe not unexpected?

Even if they just delete the website it will still be out there on the Internet archive and someone else could just start hosting it.

I lived/worked nearby for a long time. I still mostly ride a bike I bought there.

The loss is mostly around that they were one of the only shops I've ever gone in that actually tried to recognize that race bikes are not practical for most people and not the best thing for the majority of customers. Most shops always seem like they are so heavily race focused, and a lot of the major manufacturers just try to sell cheaper/dumbed down versions of race bikes to everyone else who isn't racing.

A lot of the stuff Harris sold was just way more practical because bikes designed as every day bikes instead of cheaper out versions of race bikes are just more pleasant to live with.

But none of my experiences there were great. They were always super disorganized, the place was a mess, customer service was mediocre for Boston area shops, the mechanics were cranky and not that great. They weren't going to help you much with fitting and maybe wouldn't even put you on the right size. It was your old school LBS experience to a T. The new model is you're mostly getting Trek or Specialized.. but those new model shops are more organized and the bike companies seem to be doing something to sell the bike shop as a place that should be organized and professional. I am mostly talking about after Sheldon Brown died, I never met him, the shop could have had a heyday that I wasn't around for.

But still horrible.. cause you're not going to find those brands they carried elsewhere very easily.

[NHAero]

At the time of his death, about half of Sheldon's bikes resided there too, say, thirty or so. It probably looked less cluttered after those were sorted and went to other owners.

Originally Posted by schwa86

I’m going to push back on this somewhat. Having spent a decent amount of time in the basement storage area over the years, they had an amazing amount of stuff, well organized. But I do think over the years they lost some good staff/mechanics, and towards the end got a little thin. All this said I do my own wrenching and never relied on them to work on my bikes... and I agree I’d go someplace else for a fitting.

[vqdriver]

Well... thats a bummer. I would have thought that all bike shops had a banner year in 2020. All the local shops here were pretty thin for a while.

[ripvanrando]

I had known of her as the lady with a full roasted chicken in her handlebar bag during PBP 1975. Later, I learned she was married to Sheldon Brown. IIRC, they both were randonneurs in the old IR format.

I vaguely remember the brouhaha over the Klein patent when I lived up there and even raced with a fellow who taught at MIT who had a big tubed aluminum bike, possibly predating Kleins. Very interesting history about Harriet's bike challenging the Klein patent.

[ripvanrando]

Originally Posted by vqdriver

Well... thats a bummer. I would have thought that all bike shops had a banner year in 2020. All the local shops here were pretty thin for a while.

Tons of shops are closing. No supply of bikes and parts, but lots of supply of free money.

[Hilltopperny]

2020 was good for the shops. 2021 came in and no availability of certain products/new bikes and they are relying on the back end maintenance side for revenue. I can imagine in an expensive city with astronomical overhead some shops just cannot make ends meet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[peanutgallery]

Selling pocket lint and tune ups ... though profitable... doesn't pay the bills. Shops need the pure retail $$ of bikes and big ticket items to cover their nut. Add in the lack of availability, crazy shipping fees and 30 day terms on bikes you can get and it's like winter all year long

Lots of places will close this summer. If specialized has their way, you'll have to visit power sports stores to buy your bikes, parts and accessories

Sad to see a place like Harris hang it up but I can certainly see how it happened

Originally Posted by vqdriver

Well... thats a bummer. I would have thought that all bike shops had a banner year in 2020. All the local shops here were pretty thin for a while.