It is with great sadness that we all just learned about the passing of a bike industry icon, Sheldon Brown (via Cyclelicious). He passed last night of a massive heart attack, after his last journal post, amazingly.
Although I'd never met Sheldon, I couldn't help but know about a fraction of his expertise - after all, every time I get on a forum and someone asks about proper lock up techniques the answer is hardly, "ask Kryptonite" or even "ask Kryptonite competitor Y". No, it is nearly always, "use the Sheldon Brown method" or, "read Sheldon's method" or "visit Sheldon's site to get the proper method". Either that, or it was Sheldon himself replying to the person with the question. And...they were right...in most cases, Sheldon has the correct method.
I'd been saddened to learn that he'd been diagnosed with MS last year and couldn't ride as he'd like to any longer. Like many of the amazing people with MS he adapted to this situation and rode anyway.
On this sad day, we all hope Sheldon is riding exactly as he'd like on sun-drenched roads with the wind at his back.
To his family and his family at Harris Cyclery, please accept the sympathies of us all here at Kryptonite.
In addition to Cyclelicious the tributes are starting to roll in:
Bike Radar
BikeBiz
UPDATE (2/8):
Ross Kerber isn't just a Boston Globe reporter, he's also a cyclist. He's written a nice article, complete with a thoughtful photo, on Sheldon Brown and his family today. It also gives memorial service information.
