Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Went down to the garage this morning..bike gone. It was cable locked with a padlock in a secure garage. Weirdly, lock gone too.

Anyway its a white Addict R4 with white everything, Ultegra and Shimano RS80 wheels. Just in case anyone spots it...

Sorry to hear this Schroeds. Possibly somebody known to you? Have you had any tradesmen etc around your place recently? Do you have insurance( house/contents/bike)?


This is an appropriate time to remind everybody to write down and keep a record of the serial number(s) of their bikes.


Greg

Thanks Greg, I need all the sympathy I can get right now...already comfort eating and ready to drown my sorrows.

It's a communal security garage and - strange co-incidence - there have been tradies in there for the past couple of weeks redoing the fire sprinklers.

And, wouldn't you believe it, I'm currently looking all over the house for the bloody serial number and having trouble finding it so far.

I've got house insurance, but purchased the bike second hand, so no receipt...hope I don't have too much of a sh*t fight with insurance, because I simply cannot afford a replacement

btw should be pretty easy to spot, it has white nokon cables (added since pic taken), white steerer tube, stem, seatpost...unless it's stripped back to frame, you'd expect some of that pretty unusual gear to stay on the bike.

Damn Schroeds, I'm really sorry to hear about that, here's hoping that such a unique example will be hard for the balls of rancid smegma involved to shift.

Not much of a secure garage, have you informed the landlord/body corporate?

Good luck with finding her.

Shaun

Thanks Shaun, couldn't agree more, I sincerely hope they have a hard time or are stupid enough to advertise it as is or ride it and get sprung.

Yep, I'm onto the body corp but I reckon they care about as much as the cops when I filed the report...zero. A co-operative insurance company is my biggest hope at this point...hmmm, insurance companies being famous for their understanding attitudes

Good news: Based on my experience of getting turned over (FUUUUUUUUUUUU heroin addicts of Marrickville) last year, a picture of the item should prove reasonable proof of ownership.

Bad news: I would be a little worried about the fact (a) it got nicked from a communal area (b) bikes sometimes are excluded under contents insurance because of their nickability.

I suggest reading the PDS thoroughly

Eggman, sorry to say you're right....Allianz has declined my claim based on common area small print. Pays to check your home & content policy. I'd feel stupid, but then they also screwed hundreds of flood victims didn't they

Insurance is useless unless you have gone through an insurance broker.

Why you ask? It is in their best interest to keep you happy and on their books, they live off your commission. They will fight and advise you how to word a claim. My insurances are through a broker and we have not had trouble, in fact we have been advised on how to avoid trouble with the two claims we have had in the last several years.

What is one supposed to do if they suspect they see this bike? If it is chained up at a rack somewhere? Or someone is riding it? Do we just file a police report that we suspect it is stolen and location seen?

A bike in common property is not a great idea, obviously, but a friend of mine had his quick release seat taken and wheels. That was in a collective bike rack in his building. My pride and joy is in a cage, private cage, but it is kind of on display and a wire snips would get you in no trouble. It is however on the policy, fully covered.

JM

The irony is, JM, I used a broker, he's always been great, but when I made this claim he did say I might have a problem.

Anyway later this week he'll go into bat for me, so we'll see if he earns his keep. Otherwise I'll be asking him some pointy questions about why I had this policy.

I have just seen this bike on ebay (Sydney central)- not sure if it is legit

Thank you so much Robbo, that's my stolen bike all right, never thought I'd see it again, I'll get onto the cops tomorrow. You have an amazing memory!!!

schroeds wrote:Thank you so much Robbo, that's my stolen bike all right, never thought I'd see it again, I'll get onto the cops tomorrow. You have an amazing memory!!!

Wow! Good find. Hope the cops sort it for you. In the mean time, how'd the insurance claim go?

Insurance? Looong story but to cut it short, they offered m a grand which I thought was weird, then my broker gave them merry hell, then they claimed they thought I was on a lower grade policy than I actually was, and eventually paid up. So it ended happily.

...and now this..what a turn up for the books! The bike is at a porn broker that's listed it on ebay, Now my challenge is to prove to the cops that I owned it...I threw out all the owners books last month! But I have photos and it a unique build so should hopefully get it back.

What an epic!

Seems to have been removed. I had planned to put a stupidly big bid on it to keep it in circulation but maybe your contacts at the constabulary have beaten me to it. I certainly hope so! Let us know how things turn out.

Edit: technically, the insurance company owns the bike now.

trailgumby wrote:Seems to have been removed. I had planned to put a stupidly big bid on it to keep it in circulation but maybe your contacts at the constabulary have beaten me to it. I certainly hope so! Let us know how things turn out.

Edit: technically, the insurance company owns the bike now.

The cops had the pawnshop take down the listing while its all being sorted out. So far as the bike is concerned, doesn't really matter what happens to it, though if course I'd like it back, however the best thing is that hopefully now they can go get the scumbag that stole it ...one less bike stealer is a good thing for us all, right?

Plus stories like this might get people to think twice before stealing stuff to sell it later on ebay...the awesome power of bike forum

OK, good news.

I'm a bit surprised the cops didn't jump around there straight away when the pawnshop took possession and entered the bike's details into their system. They're supposed to have an on-line link to the COPS system so that serial numbers of stolen goods are flagged instantly. Did you report the details to the police when it was nicked?

Yes, I did do the police report, but unfortunately I never found the serial number so it wasn't entered lesson there people is to keep a record of the serial number!