Jobst Brandt


Jobst Brandt was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, bicycle enthusiast, educator, and author.

Early life

Brandt was born in New York City, where his father, the German-born agricultural economist Karl Brandt, was a professor at the New School for Social Research. The family moved to Palo Alto in 1938. Jobst Brandt studied mechanical engineering at Stanford University, graduating in 1958. After two years of military service in the US Army Corps of Engineers, stationed near Frankfurt, Germany, he found employment at Porsche. His subsequent employers included Hewlett Packard, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Avocet, a bicycle accessories brand. At Avocet, he was involved in the development of a cyclocomputer, touring shoes, and a high-performance bicycle tire, and published The Bicycle Wheel, a unique treatise on wheelbuilding which became a best-seller.

Legacy

In the late 1980s and early/mid 1990s, the era of the Usenet newsgroup, Jobst Brandt was a prolific contributor to rec.bicycles.tech and other public forums. His authoritative explanations and incisive, sometimes tart opinions on bicycle technology, as well as the detailed descriptions of his inspiring bike holidays in the Alps and epic one-day rides in the Santa Cruz Mountains, brought him a wide readership among avid bicyclists well beyond the Bay Area, in the nascent online community.