La Brea Bike

If anyone sees this rare bird, I would like it back. They burgled my house and that was one of the few things they got away with... Thanks!

cudak888 

Keep a sharp eye on Craigslist, OfferUp, and Facebook Marketplace. Run a check of the local pawn shops if you can.

Shouldn't be too hard to track down someone trying to unload that beast, even in Los Angeles.

-Kurt

La Brea Bike

It would seem like a ridiculous thing to try and sell... How many can there be in the US?

HelpSingularity 

Sorry for your loss. Very cool ride. Good luck with the recovery.

cudak888 

I've seen one similar in the US listed online IIRC, and far as I know, @nlerner has owned two '37s. I wound up with the frameset from one.

They're out there, even in the US - though mostly in the northeast given Raleigh's HQ in the States.

-Kurt

canklecat

Don't assume the thief will hesitate to attempt to sell it publicly. If you watch enough videos of encounters with bike and motorcycle thieves, they tend to be utter morons, stoners, unrepentant antisocial types, and hopelessly impervious to consideration for anyone or anything other than their impulses. Some YouTubers put a lot of effort and took risks to document some of the most notorious repeat thieves in their cities, just to demonstrate how hopeless it can be in cities where local government and police are overwhelmed with other crimes they consider more important, and disregard most thefts of personal property, including bicycles and motorcycles.

Besides the more obvious and popular online outlets -- Facebook, ebay, craigslist, OfferUp -- check on the several other lesser known classified sales outlets. Some of these come and go. I've checked a few occasionally and see far more sketchy looking items on these lesser known sites -- the sellers seem to know little or nothing about the items, ask prices disproportionate to market value, and often list random scatterings of other items. Other giveaways are indifference to looking or sounding businesslike or even civilized, including ads and posts filled with misspellings, vulgarities, gangsta-sounding slang, and backgrounds that look like places you'd rather avoid.

Mr. 66

Oh man, that sucks.

Drillium Dude 

I'm confused by the title - should we be looking in Arizona? Also, any other photos handy? Might help others keeping an eye out to know exactly what they're keeping an eye out for.

Hopefully you get it back. I've had four bikes stolen in my lifetime and was able to recover one, so it's possible...

DD

noobinsf 

I just looked at Phoenix Craigslist and there is a different (mixte) stolen vintage Raleigh ad posted. You should do the same and place it on every nearby Craigslist.

Chuck Naill

I am so sorry. That is an amazingly attractive bicycle. I hope you get it back unscathed.

polymorphself 

Which part of Arizona was this in?

La Brea Bike

Guys, it was out of Lake Havasu City, but who knows where it's headed. What really Sucks is that the history of the bike was sitting right next to it. They didn't take the article... The history is now disconnected from the bike...

polymorphself 

If you haven't already, set Offerup and Craigslist alerts for raleigh and other relevant keywords in all surrounding areas.

jiangshi

It's headed to Mexico, most likely. That's what I was told when my bike was stolen. It turned up at a bike shop in Scottsdale, though.

cudak888 

It is always easy for someone not invested in recovering the bike to make sweeping generalizations. Everyone in Miami likes to say stolen bicycles or automobiles get loaded on freighters to the Bahamas, even though that's far from the truth (much of it eventually tends to turn up again locally, or at least stateside).

-Kurt

Lattz

La Brea Bike sorry for your loss, its horrible even with less special bikes.
In a vast country like yours guys must sound crazy, but over here such bikes are advertised either a misspelled brands, or with really general names as "classic road bike". It is also not uncommon to see bikes popping up after midnight for 1-2 hours. Not to discourage OP, but unfortunately those who do such things sometimes do the stupid things in a smart way.
X my fingers for you, unfortunately know the feeling.

cudak888 Don't know about that, but recently saw a horror video how someone from Paris traced down his bike found in Barcelona uncovering possibly one of the biggest network in Europe. The bikes in the walmart-sized warehouse came via a cargo ship from North Africa. Working in ocean freight for years, I was like, wait, it doesn't make sense.... then realized, the one time export post and the return (then in a container) is like peanuzz considering the free bike is sold even as low as a EUR 100. Not every case have to be like that, but there are such cases.

retswerb

You were told it in your case, it turned out to be false, and now you're telling someone else it's the likely outcome?

bikingshearer 

Nothing to offer other than to say "good luck." I hope this special bike comes back to you.

mountaindave 

Sorry for your loss. This is such a unique bike, if you cast your net wide, you may well find it. Someone stole a vintage bike with rod-lever brakes in my neck of the woods. In addition to a couple other identifying tells, it turned up for sale and was recovered. It wasn’t days, it was months if not years. (Don’t recall the precise details.)

What I’m trying to say is, don’t give up hope. Be vigilant and have patience.

jiangshi

Not exactly. I was offering hope.

My bike turned up 1.5 years after, almost as it was stolen.

A lot of stolen bikes in this part of the country do end up in Mexico, but this may have been targeted, as mine was.

What's your problem?

RCMoeur 

Scottsdale? Egads. I'm terribly sorry to hear that.

(I can't help it. The only time I lived east of Central Avenue was 3 years in Tucson.)

SoccerBallXan

I will keep a look out, I am on our local CL, OfferUp, and FB Marketplace daily.

I have had two bicycles stolen in Phoenix. Both times, exactly one month after the bike was stolen, it was listed on Craigslist. One of my friends had his bicycle stolen from a bar in Downtown Phoenix and it turned up at the 2nd nearest pawn shop a week later.

I wouldn't expect the bike to go far. Given that it was stolen in Lake Havasu City... I don't expect the culprit will do much driving to nearby states. Check the houses near where it was stolen...

Wishing you the best and I'll keep an eye out!

La Brea Bike

Thanks for all of the responses! I have thrown a $200 Reward out in the city, no questions asked (I realized that they got other sentimental stuff specific to me today, but feel worse about not protecting this man's legacy better). The world is changing, I should have predicted this...

repechage

Don't deserve that.
major bummer.

I had a Masi stolen in 1976.
I still hope it might turn up someday.

ascherer 

That's low.