in memoriam, Jobst Brandt

From Pardo this morning:


A little over 4 years ago, Jobst had a brain injury while
riding his
bicycle -- Stroke then crash? Crash then stroke? The
details are
unclear. He has been in a decline ever since. Recently, he
stopped
eating, then drinking; last night he died at home, which is
where he
wanted to be.

A lot of cyclists know of Jobst mainly through rec.bicycle
posts, where
he developed a reputation of "self-important jerk". He was
also often
abrasive in person. And: also generous, enthusiastic, and
tirelessly
encouraging of everybody to aim higher and do more.

I have been thinking about "why I liked Jobst", and here are
a few
thoughts:

* He was one of the engineering-smartest people I have met.
Illustration: I ran in to one of his co-workers (we were
both riding
with Carradice bags), somebody who worked with Jobst at
HP (Agilent)
labs for 20-ish years; we got to talking about Jobst.
We agreed
Jobst had a difficult user interface. When I said Jobst was
"usually" right about technical matters, his co-worker's
face flushed
and he demanded "Tell me _once_ when Jobst has been wrong!"

* He was enthusiastic to share. Illustration: at some
point he was
lamenting idiots on rec.bicycles -- I asked "Why do you
even bother?"
His response was, basically "There's people who want to
know, I can't
let the idiots be the only ones to speak!" Further, he
expected
_everybody_ was capable of understanding answers to
their questions.
More, he understood clearly that for every issue or
problem, there's
a "first time" a person will see it. In a little more
detail, he
spent countless hours describing stuff to me just
because I asked and
was willing to listen.

* Life does not stop at engineering. Illustrations: The
purpose of
bicycles is to _see the world_. "We need the
environment. I give to
the Open Space trust; everybody should." "I do not
understand why
anybody wants to be gay [homosexual], but there's no
reason anybody
should stop them." A seemingly-endless supply of
chanterelle
mushrooms -- "nobody understands how to cultivate them,
we keep
learing more, yet it is a mystery where they choose to
grow."

* Do what you can do, and there's always more to do.
Illustrations:
Jobst's heart valve was damaged a child, and he had
cancer later in
life. Yet his main complaint was the poor accuracy of
testing
anti-coagulants and time it took to deal with
complications from
surgery. "The locomotives had been moved to Vietnam,
and were
eventually retired as stationary engines. With some
help, they were
moved out of the jungle and rebuilt from original plans
somebody
managed to find. Today you can go for a ride."

Caption: "Many riders can climb steeper than they believe.
Filbert
Street, San Francisco, 1979. About 30% grade."

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/jobst/Jobs..._Street_SF.jpg

I've been here, but in 38/23 not 50/23!

;-D on ( so long and thanks for all the chanterelles )

Pardo



--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

From reading JB, I developed the understanding JB was a school teacher, a professor at Stanford....he said no not correct then I heard JB !

On Thu, 07 May 2015 07:34:01 -0500, AMuzi wrote:
From Pardo this morning:

Thanks for sharing that, Andy!

Vale, Jobst, requiescat in pace.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

or close enough on the Passo di Gavia.

Maybe some of the newer members of the forum don't remember this, but Jobst Brandt, in his book "The Bicycle Wheel" (supposedly) pronouced the Mavic MA2 rim to be "The Ultimate Bicycle Rim" based upon a set of factors that I believe he listed (I haven't seen that text myself, actually).

This caused a "run" on that bicycle part, producing shortages at dealers and people were hoarding them, and it went out of production sometime around the production of the book, and sets of these pedestrian entry-level rims were selling for more than $100 on EBay, all because of the power and influence of his intellect. I think that says something about the influence he had on the bicycle industry in his lifetime.

- Don Gillies
Palo Alto, CA
P.S. I moved here _after_ Brandt was injured.

On Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 7:33:59 AM UTC-5, AMuzi wrote:
From Pardo this morning:


A little over 4 years ago, Jobst had a brain injury while
riding his
bicycle -- Stroke then crash? Crash then stroke? The
details are
unclear. He has been in a decline ever since. Recently, he
stopped
eating, then drinking; last night he died at home, which is
where he
wanted to be.

From what I remember, he was riding in dense fog. He slipped crossing RR tracks, breaking his hip. While in the hospital recouping from surgeries, he developed DVT in his calf. A piece of the blood clot traveled to his brain causing his stroke. He only partially recovered from the stroke.

Don Gillies wrote in
:

Maybe some of the newer members of the forum don't remember this, but
Jobst Brandt, in his book "The Bicycle Wheel" (supposedly) pronouced
the Mavic MA2 rim to be "The Ultimate Bicycle Rim" based upon a set of
factors that I believe he listed (I haven't seen that text myself,
actually).

This caused a "run" on that bicycle part, producing shortages at
dealers and people were hoarding them, and it went out of production
sometime around the production of the book, and sets of these
pedestrian entry-level rims were selling for more than $100 on EBay,
all because of the power and influence of his intellect. I think that
says something about the influence he had on the bicycle industry in
his lifetime.

- Don Gillies
Palo Alto, CA
P.S. I moved here _after_ Brandt was injured.

A better memory of Jobst is contained in the consultancy work he did
for Avoceet. The Avocet cross K was the best touring tyre of it's time
and the Avocet computer which he designed set the standard for bicycle
computers for many years after it was released.

I stll have a copy of "The Bicycle Wheel". It is mostly technical and
explains the stresses & strains on a bicycle wheel & helped to refute
many common myths about bicycle wheels.

He didn't suffer fools gladly & many of his posts in RBT were vitriolic.

One time, I drew an ASCII art description on how to fold a bicycle tyre.
Jobst emailed me a note of thanks & included it in the FAQ which he
maintained.

On 5/7/2015 7:09 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Thu, 07 May 2015 07:34:01 -0500, AMuzi wrote:
From Pardo this morning:

Thanks for sharing that, Andy!

Vale, Jobst, requiescat in pace.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

or close enough on the Passo di Gavia.

That was wonderfully appropriate!


--
- Frank Krygowski

AMuzi wrote:
: From Pardo this morning:


: Jobst had a difficult user interface. When I said Jobst was
: "usually" right about technical matters, his co-worker's
:face flushed
: and he demanded "Tell me _once_ when Jobst has been wrong!"

Jobst suffered from a problem that plagues engineers. They know how
something works, so they think they know how everything works, or they
can work it out from 'first principles', but they don't know enough to
know what the principles are. On things mechanical, he was rarely
wrong. When he thought he could talk about chemistry, he was
clueless.

--
Truth is in your water heater.

Il giorno giovedì 7 maggio 2015 14:33:59 UTC+2, AMuzi ha scritto:
From Pardo this morning:

A little over 4 years ago, Jobst had a brain injury while
riding his
bicycle ..... --

Andrew, thanks for posting this sad piece of news.

Like many other cycling enthusiasts I shall deeply miss Jobst.
We met only once, in Frisco, but I have Always felt him as a truly honest and close friend.

Requiescat, up there.

Sergio
Pisa

Il giorno giovedì 7 maggio 2015 14:33:59 UTC+2, AMuzi ha scritto:
From Pardo this morning:


A little over 4 years ago, Jobst had a brain injury while
riding his
bicycle -- Stroke then crash? Crash then stroke? The
details are
unclear. He has been in a decline ever since. Recently, he
stopped
eating, then drinking; last night he died at home, which is
where he
wanted to be.

A lot of cyclists know of Jobst mainly through rec.bicycle
posts, where
he developed a reputation of "self-important jerk". He was
also often
abrasive in person. And: also generous, enthusiastic, and
tirelessly
encouraging of everybody to aim higher and do more.

I have been thinking about "why I liked Jobst", and here are
a few
thoughts:

* He was one of the engineering-smartest people I have met.
Illustration: I ran in to one of his co-workers (we were
both riding
with Carradice bags), somebody who worked with Jobst at
HP (Agilent)
labs for 20-ish years; we got to talking about Jobst.
We agreed
Jobst had a difficult user interface. When I said Jobst was
"usually" right about technical matters, his co-worker's
face flushed
and he demanded "Tell me _once_ when Jobst has been wrong!"

* He was enthusiastic to share. Illustration: at some
point he was
lamenting idiots on rec.bicycles -- I asked "Why do you
even bother?"
His response was, basically "There's people who want to
know, I can't
let the idiots be the only ones to speak!" Further, he
expected
_everybody_ was capable of understanding answers to
their questions.
More, he understood clearly that for every issue or
problem, there's
a "first time" a person will see it. In a little more
detail, he
spent countless hours describing stuff to me just
because I asked and
was willing to listen.

* Life does not stop at engineering. Illustrations: The
purpose of
bicycles is to _see the world_. "We need the
environment. I give to
the Open Space trust; everybody should." "I do not
understand why
anybody wants to be gay [homosexual], but there's no
reason anybody
should stop them." A seemingly-endless supply of
chanterelle
mushrooms -- "nobody understands how to cultivate them,
we keep
learing more, yet it is a mystery where they choose to
grow."

* Do what you can do, and there's always more to do.
Illustrations:
Jobst's heart valve was damaged a child, and he had
cancer later in
life. Yet his main complaint was the poor accuracy of
testing
anti-coagulants and time it took to deal with
complications from
surgery. "The locomotives had been moved to Vietnam,
and were
eventually retired as stationary engines. With some
help, they were
moved out of the jungle and rebuilt from original plans
somebody
managed to find. Today you can go for a ride."

Caption: "Many riders can climb steeper than they believe.
Filbert
Street, San Francisco, 1979. About 30% grade."

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/jobst/Jobs..._Street_SF.jpg

I've been here, but in 38/23 not 50/23!

;-D on ( so long and thanks for all the chanterelles )

Pardo



--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971