Sheldon came to the bike church in santa cruz one day a few years back. He was in town for the college graduation of his daughter Tova. At that time Tova lived at one of the two big commune-esque student coops in town, and I lived at the other one. Most of us probably know of Tova chiefly in terms of Sheldon's stories of her childhood, and his pride of her acting career; she is also a very thoughtful, intelligent and responsible adult these days. My thoughts go out to her now.
So Tova knew all about the bike church, and thought that her dad might like to come by. He did, at the tale end of a ride around town. We were chatting in the doorway for some time (while highschool kids with fixies whispered back and fourth 'do you know who that is?') and, frankly he was somewhat disdainful of the chaos in the shop. The bike church is small, and always crowded, and this day it had spilled well into the parking lot-- home bums with their bikes upside down shoved into every imaginable corner. He wanted to know how I could manage to get any quality wrenching done in that environment. A fair critique, to be sure. Then, from across the room, he saw a kid pushing hard on a bottom bracket tool with a granny bar--the wrong way (left threads, you know). He sort of sprang into action, dropping our conversation in mid sentence, he went and told the kid to stop. Then he explained the whole history of bottom brackets, including all the wacky stuff like swiss threading that no one really needs to know, to this kid and showed him how to get the fixed cup out. It was like all the sudden he got it--that, yeah, it's chaotic, but what could be better than LOTS of people wanting to fix their own bikes?
Motivated by a profound love for the bicycle and great love for humanity, the riders of bicycles, Sheldon is a great inspiration for all of us who feel similarly.