KonAaron Snake 

I'm not sure this really fits C&V, but I thought some might find it interesting. Philly news are reporting that a stolen bicycle from 1996 is worth...$100,000. I find this hard to believe, and found it interesting.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/ne...262550187.html

3alarmer 

.
...I've seen it described as a "military prototype." Take that FWIW.

USAZorro

BMX collectors either seem to have more $$ than they have sense, or they're shrewdly playing a longer game. Have seen a recent auction for a BMX bike that didn't meet reserve at $61,000. Has me wondering if that was a piece of a larger operation to commit insurance fraud.

If this stolen bike is insured, and the owners can get $100,000 from them, I'd have to think the owners are secretly hoping the thief doesn't get caught and the bike remains lost. Heck, if I could get $10,000 from the theft of my favorite bike, I wouldn't be upset about anything but the inconvenience of having to deal with the insurance company.

scarlson 

Give me a hundred thousand dollars, and I'll build them another one!

bamboobike4

The pictures made it look like a simple mountain bike.
Military prototype? There would be a lot more info on it.
Bike messengers existed when I was in, but the bikes were basic.
They were replaced by dirt bikes, Can Ams, if I remember.

It's about insurance, no doubt about it.
Shop will try to settle for $10,000 and consider it a win.
They contacted the media because they are feeling pushback from their carrier.
A $100,000 bike would have to be specifically listed, and wouldn't have coverage without serious security already in place.
The shop wants people to believe they'd have public access to a $100,000 bike.

Real military bikes, the Buffalo Soldier bikes, aren't going for $10,000.
Wright Brothers bikes aren't going for $100,000 (more like $15,000-$20,000)
An actual Major Taylor bike may approach that figure, with iron-clad provenance and it would be in a museum, not a bike shop.
Bikes of that kind of value are generally in museums and protected locations.

A local shop here had a $12,000 "Lamborghini" Cervelo, camouflage scheme.
Sitting in the window, taken down at night.
Broad daylight, 11:00 am, a guy simply walks in, takes the bike, and goes to his car.
Shop owner follows him, and he refused to give it back until the shop owner drew his pistol.

Another shop had a bike on display, inside, in a case.
Thieves broke in, broke the case, took the bike, maybe a $5,000 bike.

I can't imagine either shop, or any shop, having a $100,000 bike where anyone could take it and walk down the street.

But, you never know.

KonAaron Snake 

My first thought was it sounded like an absurd insurance claim.

beicster 

If I had a bike worth that much, I would have many pictures documenting it. And, I would let the police have access to those pictures so they could share those around as well. Because that garbage quality security video isn't going to narrow it down much. But, a unique bike would be much easier to spot.

Andy_K 

I think what we have here is likely a misunderstanding between what a bike cost its owner and what it's worth -- a distinction that I expect most of us here are all too familiar with.

Notice the article says it was an "all wheel drive" bike. I was curious about this, and Google led me straight to the site of the builder that's mentioned in the article: https://christinibicycles.com/awd-tech/how-it-works/

Today they're selling these AWD bikes for around $6000. I can easily imagine them having charged the U.S. military $100,000 to develop a prototype in 1996. And then like so much military surplus, it eventually goes to a municipal police department.

Chombi1 

Mehhh!,.... that's pie in the sky valuation by the shop that lost it.
Even a bikes ridden to a TDF wins will have a hard time getting valued at $100K.
Makes one wonder if there could be any possible in-house shenanigans involved here.....

repechage

https://electrek.co/2022/05/12/this-...-russians/amp/

these are paying their weight- they ditch the taillight though

SoccerBallXan

I always pictured the bicycle thief RIDING the bike away... I never assumed they'd walk it.

base2 

A literal clown bike. Used by clowns.

Sometimes value & utility are not connected


Oy, ve!

stardognine

They could have at least brought a friend with a pickup truck, to put it in. 🙄😁

verktyg 

24 kt Gold and Sterling Silver encrusted bling!

Another possibility: Swiss Army bike with case for $100k worth of Swiss Francs???




verktyg

lasauge 

Could have been worse, just imagine if it was a bike contracted from Lockheed Martin... then it would have been initially budgeted to cost $100,000 but actually ended up costing taxpayers $200,000 (before projected lifetime service costs), delivered a decade late, and in need of immediate revisions before it could go into service...

3alarmer 

...I got sucked into that website link, and discovered that this woman plans to ride one of their AWD fatbikes across the Antarctic this year.

randyjawa 

Years ago a major bike thief in Toronto got caught with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bikes that he stole. Pretty sure that the story was reported in a Toronto newspaper. Anyway, the bikes were seized by the police who had to figure out what to do with them all. Rather than junk them or dump them all into one community, the police decided to send shipments of those bikes to several different communities. Thunder Bay was one of those communities and I was embued with the task of putting them to good use. What did I do?

The bikes were donated to a First Nation group/school. The person in charge asked me to get as many bikes as I could in road worthy and safe to ride condition. The bikes were then to be shipped to a First Nation community although I cannot remember which one. A group of Bicycles for Humanity volunteers, surpervised by me, managed to salvage 45 bikes out of the couple of hundred that were sent to the First Nation school. I should add that the lady in charge did not want any of the vintage road bikes to go and she gave them to me, if I wanted them. I did and there were one or two nice bikes but everything we repaired were mountain bikes. Anyway, pics or it didn't happen, right?






These were the bikes that were given to me, most of which I passed on to Bicycles for Humanity...


But this one I kept for myself...

stardognine

Randy, are you saying that ONE guy stole all those bikes? 😲 If so, he's like a mass murderer of bike thieves. 🤨

2much

As far as the Christini goes.... It was a prototype, experimental, in development bike. The Christini crew spent numerous hours and specially fabricated parts for this "First of it's kind" from that maker.
It is a way cool design. I was fascinated when I had a chance to buy a second hand one several years ago. Soon after I purchased mine the last one built by Christini was auctioned and sold for $20 or $25K on eBay.

They make a 2 wheel drive motorcycle I would like to have but not in the cards yet. And I think they made a fat tire bike for crossing the Antarctic.

t2p

my vintage / WWII BSA folding paratrooper bike is available for a lot less than $100K

just sayin

randyjawa 

Yes, one guy stole them all - click the link if you want to know more. Apparently he had them stashed in several different places. What you see, the bikes sent to Thunder Bay, is roughly 300 bikes. The Toronto police recovered over two and a half thousand bikes when they busted the guy. The fellow reportedly said that he would do a year and be back in business soon after he got out. He got 30 months. There is lots of information on the web for those who want to know more...

What to Do With Igor’s Loot?

Hondo6

30 months? Sheesh, the linked Wikipedia article says that more than 3,000 stolen bikes were recovered. That's less than 8 hrs in jail per stolen bike!

USAZorro

I went to visit a friend up in Toronto in 2005 to do some riding and to make some rounds to visit Mariposa and to socialize with a couple of his friends who had raced in the 50s and 60s. I remember the date because I made a point of buying Michael Barry's book while I was visiting his dad's shop. The rash of bicycle theft was definitely a topic, and I think one of the folks we conversed with said he suspected Igor. What a despicable human being.

stardognine

Hey, your Canadian websites have spam too. I might be getting married soon, lol. 😁😉

I was glad to read, that around 500 people actually got their bikes back.👍