Tributes have been paid from all quarters of the world cycling community to engineer and author of The Bicycle Wheel Jobst Brandt, who has died at the age of 80.
In his professional life, Brandt worked as a mechanical engineer for Porsche, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and Hewlett Packard, but he is best known in the cycling world for his book on the engineering and construction of bicycle wheels. The Bicycle Wheel demystified the subject, much to the annoyance of many old-school wheel builders, and presented a wheel building method that anyone with patience and basic manual dexterity could follow.
In the days before web forums, Brandt was extremely active on the cycling groups on usenet, an early internet discussion system. Bringing his engineering knowledge to areas of cycling infested with myth and misunderstanding often got him into heated arguments, but Brandt could always back his opinions with solid principles. For many of us fledgling wannabe bike gurus in the early 90s, he was a shining light of reason and analysis.
Brandt's knowledge wasn't just theoretical. He was an extremely keen and accomplished cyclist, leading rides in the Palo Alto area that were famous for their toughness and use of dirt roads, and spending several weeks each summer exploring the Alps. Long before gravel bikes were a thing, Brandt was riding his custom-made bike on tracks everyone else would think needed a mountain bike, had mountain bikes even been invented back then .
He was also involved with Palo Alto cycle component company Avocet, which for a while made wildly popular cycling computers and, backed by Brandt's understanding of tyre friction, popularised the idea that tyres do not need patterned tread to grip on tarmac even in the wet.
Brandt's friend Ray Hosler has written an affectionate and detailed account of the man on his blog, which includes tales that illustrate his tenacity and attitude to life.
Hosler writes: "I met Jobst in 1979 while working at Palo Alto Bicycles. I’ll never forget seeing Jobst wheel into the store on his huge bike, which he always rode into the shop while deftly opening the door.
"He immediately bound upstairs to the Avocet headquarters where he would engage owner Bud Hoffacker in lively discussions (browbeat) about everything under the sun involving bike technology.
"Jobst was like that. He believed with 100 percent certainty that his way was the right way. If you disagreed and didn’t have the facts to support your argument, you were just another crackpot."
Brandt was forced to stop riding after a crash on his 76th birthday in which he sustained serious injuries.
Shortly before that, however, he gave a lengthy interview to cycling website Cozy Beehive, touching on his professional career and how he came to write The Bicycle Wheel. He said: "No one solicited [me to write it], with nothing being known about the subject and with the total faith in bicycle mechanics to be doing the build and repair the best way possible." He set out to fill that void.
If you've not heard of Jobst Brandt but have an interest in bike tech, you could do a lot worse than spend the rest of the afternoon reading his collected writings on Sheldon Brown's website and Norman Yarvin's usenet posting archive.
Since the news broke there have been many tributes to Brandt posted on Twitter and elsewhere. Here are a few:
Indeed, I have noticed that that as my hands are not frozen I am able to use the brakes properly....
Plenty drinkable single malts for that price
The problem with this sort of driving is that half the drivers will be pissed off, the other half will be thinking "Why didn't I think of that?"...
Luxury! You can almost fit a 3" tyre past your toes there! In Edinburgh I'd want steelies doing that.
Since we're on 1678 comments, I assumed it was a case of "Cap'n, she cannae take any more", but Lo! here we are without having to select newest...
Never used electrical tape, but thorns were a right pain growing up in Oz and we used to make little loose wire straddles to sit next to the brake...
They don't seem to have learned from the failings of the review of the Halfords Intercity - they don't tell you the actual tyre size: 20x1.75 is...
Most things in cycling go in cycles. I've got a poster of bikes from over 100 years ago - custom frame bags, dropped stays, passive suspension all...
Now I wish I had Shimano disks just so I could upgrade to them. Well found. Unfortunately my Hope's don't have this design error.
a phenomenON.