If you're looking for my bicycle technical articles, here are some quick links:

Articles by Sheldon Brown and Others

Sheldon Brown's Home Page
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Information on Memorial Donations

Sheldon Brown, George Brown, Harriet Fell, Tova Brown
July 2002
Sheldon Brown, George Brown, Harriet Fell, Tova Brown
August 2003
Sheldon Brown, George Brown, Harriet Fell, Tova Brown
September 2004
Sheldon Brown, George Brown, Harriet Fell, Tova Brown
November 2005
Sheldon Brown, George Brown, Harriet Fell, Tova Brown
January 2007
I was born in Boston, July 14, 1944, and grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a small seacoast town north of Boston. My father was George Matson Brown, my mother, Madalyn Joyce Brown.

In my formative years, I was much influenced by the writings of Robert Heinlein, Martin Luther King and Bertrand Russell.

As a kid, I used to gather discarded bicycle parts and put together bikes to sell for pocket money. I have been tinkering with bicycles ever since, sometimes as a business, always as a hobby.

I live in Newtonville,Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. I am very happily married to Harriet Fell, a mathematician and computer scientist. We met on a Charles River Wheelmen ride. Her very cool Web site is well worth looking at. It has a nifty article about her experience riding the 1975 Paris-Brest-Paris, plus bizarre mathematical images, nifty projects.

We have two wonderful children: Our daughter, Tova, born in 1981, is a very talented writer, mathematician, artist, percussionist, actress and singer. She graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz , and is now a doctoral candidate in mathematics at M.I.T.

Our son, George, born in 1983, is a gifted mathematician, composer; he plays piano, trombone and baritone horn. He's also an Eagle Scout and a Morris dancer. He is a graduate of Brandeis University, (with junior year at Bristol, U.K.) now a doctoral student in Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. You can hear his Trombone Concerto and other music on MP3

I have had the great joy of sharing a stage with both of them in Gilbert & Sullivan and Revels productions.

We also have a dog, Tasha, a purebred American-Mutt-From-The-Pound. She is named for Tasha Yar of Star Trek. Although her predominant breed is believed to be pit bull, she is an unusually mellow and friendly critter.

The whole family on two kid-back tandems, July 1990.

The whole family on two homemade kid-back tandems , July 1990.

To see more of my weird bicycles, click here

Sheldon Brown photo
Harriet Fell photo Harriet Fell photo Tova Brown photo George Martin Fell Brown Tasha the Dog photo
Sheldon Harriet Fell Tova George
George's blog
Tasha
Our family, lived in France for the academic year 1988-9, in a small town called Chevreuse, near Versailles. I speak pretty good French, and try to keep it up by reading (I read all 1500 pages of Les Misérables, and loved it) and occasional trips to Québec.

I am Webmaster and general Tech Guru of Harris Cyclery in West Newton, Massachusetts. I have also written extensively about bicycles, for Bike World, Bicycling and American Bicyclist magazines, both under my own name, and the nom-de-plume "Christopher Joyce". Many of my articles are available on this Web site.

I am currently a regular contributor to Adventure Cyclist magazine.

Unfortunately, due to health problems, I have not been able to ride bicycles since early September, 2006.

I am also a photographer and worked for many years as a camera repair technician, later, service manager, for S.K. Grimes Camera Repair in Boston. I formerly worked at Newtonville Camera, in my home town. Almost all of the photographs in this web site are my own.

Music is a big part of my life. I am interested primarily in "classical" and folk music, though I also enjoy rock and show tunes. I listen to the radio a lot, and like to read books.

Miscellaneous...a little of this, a little of that.

Some of my heroes:

John Brown, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Charles de Gaulle, Mahandas Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Joni Mitchell, Harriet Tubman, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Ben Linder, Grace Hopper, Victor Hugo, Bertrand Russel, Leonardo da Vinci, George Washington, Sir Joseph Whitworth, Wilbur and Orville Wright

Some Things I Believe In

  • Democracy
  • Duty
  • Equality
  • Exogamy
  • Family
  • Freedom
  • Justice
  • Kindness
  • Law
  • Love
  • Loyalty
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Space Exploration
  • Truth

Some Things I Do Not Believe In

  • Angels
  • Astrology
  • Death Penalty
  • Devils
  • Elves
  • Faeries
  • Faith
  • Gods
  • "Intelligent Design"
  • Leprechauns
  • Luck
  • Magic
  • Racial Purity

Sheldon Brown's Personal Pages

My Articles on Internet Topics
Spam Filters Web Glossary Web Browser
Tips
Web
Sampler
Web/HTML Links
Living with Spam, and keeping it out of your way. A glossary of Web terms How to make your browser work for you,
not for Netscape or Microsoft!
A sample page with
HTML source
next to the text, so you can see how HTML works.
You don't need books to learn to build Web sites.
Everything you need to know is on the Web!

Newsgroups and Mailing Lists

List Description/Involvement Subscription address Subscription message
Bikecurrent Bicycle electronics
Occasional poster.
See info at URL  
B.O.B. B.O.B. list
Evolved from Bridgestone Owners' Bunch
Moderate volume, philosophy, mechanics, old bikes
Very active posterVery active poster. This list has changed location
See info at URL  
Canadian Folk
cdnfolk@
io.org
Canadian Folk Music
Occasional poster
Probably defunct  
CRW Charles River Wheelmen
My club's moderately active list
Active poster
See info at URL  
HPV
hpv@ihpva.org
Human Powered Vehicles
Very active list, mostly about recumbents
Occasional poster.
Majordomo@
ihpva.org
subscribe hpv
Irish Traditional LISTSERV@
IRLEARN.UCD.IE
See info at URL  
Humor
HUMOR@
uga.cc.uga.edu
Humor list
Lurker on this very active list. Still active in 2014?
LISTSERV@
UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
subscribe humor firstname lastname
LABmembers
labmembers@
fuji.physics.indiana.edu
League of American Bicyclists
Occasional poster.
The League no longer supports this list.
Majordomo@
fuji.physics.indiana.edu
subscribe labmembers
Leadheads
leadheads@
asylum.sf.ca.us
Boiled In Lead
Folk-Rock-???-band
Lurker on this low-volume list.
Active? the band has a Web site
Majordomo@
apocalypse.org
subscribe leadheads
Marine History
MARHST-L@
QUCDN.BITNET
Canadian list about nautical history.
Occasional poster on this medium-volume list.
LISTSERV@
QUCDN.QueensU.CA
subscribe marhist-l firstname lastname
Boston Area Cycling
Bay State Cycling
Bicycling in Massachusetts
Moderate poster.
Replace Massbike list which was discontinued
See info at URL  
Moulton
moulton@
cycling.org
Moulton bicycles
Occasional poster. This list has changed location.
See info at URL  
Oysterband Oysterband
my favorite band
See info at URL  
Savoynet Savoynet
Gilbert & Sullivan
Occasional poster to this very active list.
This list has changed location.
See info at URL  
Tandem
tandem@
hobbes
Tandem bicycles
My favorite list, very active poster.
listserv@
hobbes.ucsd.edu
subscribe tandem firstname lastname
Touring
touring@
phred.org
Bicycle Touring
Fairly active poster.
See Website
Velodromes
velodromes-us@
cycling.org
Velodromes
Lurker on this low-volume list.
Still an active list?
majordomo@
cycling.org
subscribe velodromes-us

How I handle the load

I typically get 500-600 email messages per day, which I manage by filtering messages from different mailing lists into different mailboxes. I use Eudora Pro, and I can't recommend it highly enough. For one thing, the filtering option makes digests unnecessary.

I have an article on the use of email filters to simplify keeping track of different types of mail, and also to greatly reduce the problem of Spam. I am quite active on the Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech and rec.bicycles.misc.

I also sometimes participate in the Newsgroups:

rec.bicycles.soc I try to ignore the Helmet wars and trolls.
fr.rec.sport.vtt French MTB newsgroup.
fr.misc.transport.velo French general bicycle newsgroup.
fr.rec.sport.cyclisme French racing-oriented newsgroup.
uk.rec.cycling Cycling in the U.K.
aus.bicycle Cycling in Australia
rec.crafts.metalworking Useful for the metalworker.
rec.arts.sf.written My favorite recreational literature.
alt.history.what-if Wild speculation.
alt.fan.heinlein The Grand Master of SF
rec.photo.advanced For camera junkies.
rec.photo.equipment.large-format My good friend and former employer Steve Grimes was a mainstay of this group.

Since December 26, 1995

Sheldon Brown's Photography
Bicycles Bicycle
Racing
My
Cameras
Gilbert &
Sullivan
Europe:
1975 1989
England
2004
France IPIX
Panoramas
Québec Yucatan
1980
If you would like to make a link or bookmark to this page, the URL is:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/home.html
Last Updated: by Harriet Fell