How about that Sheldon Brown? What that guy doesn't know about bikes… Well I'm sure there's some smartalec out there who violently disagrees with what he says about left-hand-threaded knurled filching grommits (or some such) but for average plonkers like me his advice is gold.
Take my latest brake problem for example. My commute machine has those basic direct-pull cantilever jobbies—simple and effective. But lately they've been scraping a bit on the rim. Hmmm, had that old wheel got a bit wonky-fied on the descent from Mt Stanley a few weeks ago? Well, the rim is getting worn-out and needs replacing anyway, maybe a new wheel is what I need?
Nope. Now it's scraping on the other side. Fiddle, fiddle. Bark knuckles. Swear. No improvement.
Hmm. Time to stomp inside and consult Sheldon.
Right off the bat I get his page on adjusting cantilever brakes. Good start. And then it falls into my lap: centering direct-pull cantilever brakes. Have a tamper with that little grubscrew down there. Twiddle, twiddle. Readjust the cable tension. Sweet. Couldn't be easier, once you know how.
Where would hopeless nonmechanicals like me be without the incredible resource that is sheldonbrown.com? Who else has been saved by Sheldon? And is there anywhere else to turn when you need good advice on bike maintenance?
[Photo: Brake mechanism by zimpenfish on Flickr]
Sheldon is so incredibly nice on the Internet also. He never got caught up in all the ridiculous little arguments that would pop up on Usenet. He even responds fairly quickly to personal emails.
Yes indeed, Sheldon is a cycling god.
I'm going to have to disagree. Just because I have exactly the same problem and found exactly the same page! Except for me, it isn't doing squat!!! And it seems to be the ONLY page on the web describing this problem.
I'm very new to this tho, so I may be missing something obvious =(
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Sheldon Brown is one of the most wonderful things about the internet. One of the greats. I'm so sorry to hear he's ailing.