WGB 

Took me a bit to calm down but since it's done, it's done and I have to live with it so I might as well share my loss. It is infuriating but somehow bizarrely funny at the same time. Also a polite reminder that we have to lock our stuff, a few short years ago no one was stealing old bikes but now they are expensive and expensive brings thieves. Anyway don't need condolences, it's on me and I'm living with it and just venting here.

I had been rebuilding my decks and cutting down a large Linden tree and I hadn't time to ride so bikes were unappreciated. "Normally" my garage is locked but because we were in and out and had boards and parts piled up and were constantly in and out, I hadn't locked it during the day - for several days in a row. I had tools and boxes scattered on the floor.

I went to take my truck to get some deck boards and saw that my bike rack had vanished. Since my son had told me that someone had been stealing at his job site where he parks, I assumed it was stolen from his work. It was a home made rack but very useful. Frustrating but since there was no provision for attaching it to my truck I hadn't considered theft as a possibility.

Even though I was busy at the time I recall noting that for some odd reason I had mounted my primary rider (my Corsaro) "backwards" on the work stand (NDS facing out). I was too busy to change it but I recall wondering why did I do that? Anyway, when the deck work and tree clean up were done, I decided to work on my Peugeot Competition and took the Corsaro off of the stand. The Competition had been left hanging on a hook,without it's rear wheel mounted as the wheel was too badly bent to be salvageable when I got it. I reached for the Competition (which was slightly hidden behind my tool chest) and it was off the hook on the floor and leaning on the wall, resting on it's crank! I knew I hadn't put it there and wondered who had leaned it there. I then looked for the box from Level 9 which had my new chains and the box was not where I'd left it. At that point I knew and instantly I began to notice there were other things missing as well.

The list was bizarre and seems random.

Ultimately I lost several sets of cheap bar tape from China, as well as Brooks bar tape. I lost some bar and stem sets (including a Cinelli set which I didn't notice was missing until Bertinjim asked about it later) but also a few old rusted sets of bars from some Raleigh Sports! A couple of Campagnolo derailleurs but also some old Shimano and Suntour cheap derailleurs (Lark and others) and oddly, thief went through my seat post stash and took only some of the old straight-post steel ones, most of which were rusted. I think I lost a leather Brooks seat and know I lost several of the cheap "mattress" style Brooks ones. Thief took my Piave frame and left the Piave forks but took two pairs of forks leftover from Raleigh Sports and a set of 600 cranks that had been underneath the fork stash. Most parts boxes had been rifled through but boxes were put back at random on different shelves. Almost all new chains were taken as were a single set of new tires hanging from a hook, though the thief left several sets of boxed tires (easier to carry) and better quality.

Here is the part that is bizarre and kind of funny. I had recently ridden through some new paving and had struck a pothole that rendered the rear wheel well out of true and so I had installed a set of clinchers and placed my tubulars leaning against the wall behind my Corsaro. it seems the thief removed my bike from the stand, fished out the tubular rim set and then hung the bike back (albeit backwards)!?!?

So - the thief is knowledgeable enough about bikes to want tubulars and not clinchers but didn't notice rear wasn't straight? Knew to take the Piave frame but not the correct forks? Comfortable enough to stay in someone's garage and search through box after box and then return the boxes to the shelves but take a bunch of junk as well as good stuff, and leave better?

Older picture of the Corsaro with tubular rims but a miss-matched set of tires. Tubulars rims had Vittoria Rally's mounted. It has a new brown Brooks carved B17 instead of the black one that's missing.

So, my question was my bike junk and not good enough to steal??



Anyway, all jokes aside, I'll be installing an interior security camera and I think I will add eye bolts and chain my bikes.

I have a set of 32 hole tubulars for my sons Peloton and have a second set coming from Mattdiano but just realized those too are 32 hole so will need some more 36s.

Anyway, use my complacency (stupidity) as an example and lock your gear!

As for me, I'll be watching the local sale ads quite carefully for my stuff.

Wesley

merziac

@WGB

Sorry for your loss, I firmly believe we are more often lucky than not that thieves in general are stupid, your case ultimately illustrating this to me.

While he thought he knew what he wanted, any thief that can't cherry pick any better than that is an idiot by our standards.

I think and am glad you dodged a much bigger bullet IMO.

DiabloScott

When I was in college I thought it was funny to draw Campy oil hole covers on my commute bike hubs. Somebody who thought they knew what they were getting stole my rear wheel.

DorkDisk

Maybe it is too unique to flip?

Sorry about your losses, I also got robbed and had a bike stolen. It was the one worthless and unique bike I had but that was all shiny and chromed so that was the one that got stolen. Thieves choose odd items.

WGB 

Thank you all for your kind words. and thankfully most crooks are stupid.

Having said that I might have been the cause of this. This summer I sold off some stuff and when I did I usually had my garage door open, so I could get a wrench or what have you. Twice I had people glance up and see the Piave frame and start demanding I sell it and each time I said no, not for sale as it was already promised. One "buyer" was quite insistent I sell it to him to the point that I had to get very blunt when I told him no. After that I've kept the door shut. Hopefully I see either the frame or the home made rack for sale and then I'm going over and knocking on a door. Another unfortunate part is that most parents around here can't change a bike tire so I get a steady parade of children asking for help so now I'll have to be careful what they see.

Anyway, I'm just glad he or she left the TOOLS! Finding reasonably price old tools is a challenging

gthomson

That definitely sucks and I feel for ya. That sounds so weird that this guy was looking for specific items and then to think he might get money off of them by selling on social media without you finding out? BTW, I'm in the GTA so if there's anything I can look out for on your behalf, shout out to me.

WGB 

It's just the piave frame that I can Id, rest have no identifiers that I can use to prove they're mine. I've never seen a Piave for sale in Ontario so I'll have an eye out

Vintage_Cyclist

Think defense in depth. Multiple methods to make it difficult to gain entry and steal and that require time and effort for the thief. These scum want to get in and out quick. More time equals more likelihood of detection and confrontation. While a camera is good, it's primarily forensic for after-the-fact evidence, so make sure it takes good quality images.

Most important thing, when you're not there, lock it up. My garage has a locking roll-up door, but I also have it padlocked to the pavement when it's closed. The bikes inside are all secured to a rarely used aluminum extension ladder with cables and padlocks. The bulk of the tools are in the house.

Make a list of the bikes. Take pictures, including of the serial numbers. Email to yourself for a timestamped document. I also put a card, with my name and contact info in the bottom bracket and seat posts of all my bikes.

curbtender

A few years back I had a few thieves get into my shed and break into the house. Teenagers as we got a picture of them on a neighbors camera. They had pulled out my Mondia but stole my echo blower. Felt the same way, lol.

bikingshearer 

I hope the bruise has healed. You know, the one you gave yourself smacking your forehead while going "DOH!" (or maybe using a more Anglo-Saxon vocabulary).

Many of us have been there and feel your pain, including the "how could I have been so stupid?" pain.

Riveting

I'm the kind of thief you want, since I know nothing about old(er) bikes, would have considered it all junk, and left it all behind, although all of your tools would be missing

dddd

That sounds close enough to what happened in my brother's detached garage, where a thief broke in carrying a big duffel bag, but then put down the bag and took only a weathered, black, garage-sale Japanese Bianchi, leaving his empty satchel behind.

What cracked us up was that the garage had several thousands of dollars of high quality automotive tools inside, conspicuously resting in two large rollaway cabinets.
...while the Bianchi was one that he had picked up for $60 and had me put some old STI levers onto. And it was rather small for him, so almost never used in recent years.

Miradaman

Similar thing happened to me, in the 2000s when we lived in the city proper. My wife had a new Trek hybrid that she barely used, I had a 15-year-old, beat to heck low-end Schwinn mountain bike that I used every day for commuting. Her bike was stored in the garage leaning against the wall, and mine hung right over it on hooks, because space was at a premium and I didn’t mind lifting my bike up and down off hooks every day. So, one night some dumbazz broke into our garage and either a) assumed the bike up on hooks was the more valuable one, or b) didn’t realize the difference in value between the two and opted for the men’s style mountain bike instead of the women’s hybrid. He then proceeded to move my wife’s new $500 bike safely out of the way so he take my bottom-of-the-barrel worthless Schwinn instead. He rode the Schwinn maybe 3 houses down the alley before realizing what an utter garbage ride it was, and just dumped it on the pavement and ran off. I found it still sitting there in the alley the next day. Seems not even the garbage pickers or scrap metal guys wanted it either…

bazil4696

Sorry for the unfortunte loss. I'll keep my eyes open locally too.

sheddle

I just lost one of mine, but I'm not too broken up because I was asking for it by leaving it unlocked in an apartment garage.

Also because the bike is unsafe to ride. I hope the thief doesn't mind the hairline crack in the Modolo Death Stem.

The Golden Boy 

Sorry- but I'm glad you're taking it as well as can be!

Best!!!

VtwinVince

Rip-offs are never cool, a scumbag neighbour moved out of my building, then came back a few nights later to steal my prised Specialized Epic road bike which I had for 15 years. Fortunately he got surprised by another neighbour in the act, and didn't get my '95 S-Works RockHopper.

Dylansbob 

Tacoma is RIFE with crime.

My garage got hit several times back in spring. I'm pretty sure they cased me riding because they only had eyes on my cheap BD 29+ singlespeed. Didn't touch any of my old steel bikes except to move one of them to get at the fatty (which was locked to a vertical stand). After trying to cut the ulock, they got halfway through the downtube of the frame before trying my basement door for my good stuff that was visible through the window.

Other than mental and the one frame damaged, the only thing they took was the 20" disc wheels from minivelo..... the same minivelo I'd recovered from the homeless camp after another garage break in a few months earlier.

jcyrette73

Hahahaha .have to agree with his memo leave that %#*#! As well . Im not a pro rider though or a theif so likely to not be there at all . But while reading was trying to visulize this crook . And got a vis of dumb n dumber .

Korina

Wait, he couldn't cut the lock so he cut the bike??? WTF??

Dylansbob 

I'm attempting a "Fiberfix" epoxy impregnated tape repair. I really don't ride it very often, so far it's held up to a handful of rides.

If they had been smart, they could have cut the mild steel of the stand in less time. Of course if they'd been smart, I had an open LaFuma handlebar bag on a bike a few feet away with some cash and my smoking kit with a couple gram in it. All they could see was that modern fat alloy.

Korina

😮 🙄

DiabloScott

Friend at LBS said a guy came in once with a chunk of chainstay cut out of his bike. Tried to make a warranty claim. Friend told him it wouldn't be covered and the guy left; friend figured out later that the guy had probably cut the chainstay to remove a U-lock.

Thieves are not the brightest LED in the lamp.

Korina

Good gravy! More of a cheap '70s wheel generator headlight! Don't know whether to be sorry for their parents or angry at them.

martl

Where I live, bikes get stolen from appartment houses cellar cubicles quite often. Police say 90% of those end up getting flipped for a 20 € note, to finance the next drug purchase. No matter if it's a daily beater worth 100€, a new 3000€ MTB or a cherished vintage bike.
From public spaces like subway stations or schools, it is not the most valuable bikes who get lifted, but those the thieves know how to deal with the lock quickly.