In the words of Rohan Dennis…
…”Shit happens!”
Last night whilst I was asleep my garage was broken into. 5 bikes were stolen. I am devastated.
The most upsetting factor is that my husband has spent months training for Ironman Copenhagen and we’re due to travel there in just a few days time, but now he has no bike. Several people have very generously offered to lend him their bikes, but not many of them are the same size as Stu. We really appreciate the offers and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that one particular offer works out, but it still won’t be the bike that he has trained on and got used to.
If anyone is offered a ‘good deal’ on any of the following bikes, please get in touch:
Canyon Aeroad
- Black bike with black tribars and yellow lizardskin bar tape on main handlebars
- Stages power meter – 6800 model
- Black speedplay pedals
- Aerobars with black lizardgrip bar tape.
- Garmin out front mount on handlebars
- Garmin speed / cadence sensors
- Two black carbon water bottle holders
- ISM PN 1.1 saddle (split)
Kuota Kharma Evo
This is the main bike that you will have seen pictures of me riding. It is my pride and joy.
- Black speedplay pedals
- Black lizardskin bar tape
- Two white Elite custom race bottle holders with black text
- Name on crossbar (Tamsyn)
- Tippex marking saddle height and handlebars
- Black deda handlebars and stem
- Shimano Ultegra
- Had been marked by the police in an event at Decathlon
- Bento box, saddle bag and pump attached to frame
- Garmin speed and cadence sensors
- Predominantly black San Marco saddle with barely noticeable flowers on it
Giant Defy 1
This is the bike that Stuart rode in Japan.
- This bike is an unusual pale green metallic colour
- Lime green speedplay pedals
- Silver pannier rack
- Two black with white text elite custom bottle cages
- Garmin speed/cadence sensors
- Garmin out front mount
Giant Defy 4
This is the bike that I rode in Japan.
- Slightly mouldy white bar tape
- Pedal cages
- Silver pannier rack
- Two white elite custom bottle holders
- Saddle was wonky and had some black plastic tape attached to it
- Garmin mount on handlebars
- Variety of Decathlon lights on it
Giant Escape City W
This is my work hybrid, so I usually use it every day.
- Had teal fixed panniers and reflectors on all front spokes and some rear spokes
- Noticeable scratch on right front fork
- Variety of parking tags on seat post
- Orp smart horn attached
- One black elite custom bottle cage
- D-lock and bicycle repair kit in panniers, including tyre levers and a spare innertube
- Mount for light on front handlebars and back of pannier rack
- Small silver bell added to handlebars as original integrated bell broken
We have the serial codes of these bikes.
Steps to recover the stolen bikes
I’m aware that most people never get their bikes back, but there are a few glimmers of hope and stories from friends who have tracked down their bikes down on Gumtree or ebay.
So far, Stuart and I have done the following:
- Recorded the bikes as stolen with the police, so that we have a crime reference number
- Contacted our bike insurance company
- Got a locksmith out to replace the garage locks and add additional locks and security measures
- Listed the bikes on Bike Shepherd (not available in 2019)
- Listed the bikes on Stolen Bikes
- Listed the bikes on Bike Register
- Listed the bikes on Immobilise – the UK National Property Register
- Saved searches on ebay
- Saved searches on Gumtree
- Set up alerts on FindThatBike
- Shared a public album with details of the bikes on Facebook
- Tweeted about the bikes
- Put an image with details on Instagram
It is possible to register your bike(s) with many of these places whilst it is still in your possession, so it may be worth you spending your time checking that you have full details of any bike that you own and that you have registered it on line. If the worst does happen, then it takes an awful lot less time to get it registered as stolen.
We already had full privacy settings on Strava/Garmin Connect etc and think it’s likely that someone had seen Stuart riding his distinctive bike around. Also he has had to use his turbo trainer in the garage recently, so anyone walking past when the door was open would have seen the bikes.
A reward is offered for each of the bikes ranging from £75-£750. Please get in touch via the comments if you hear anything or contact Hampshire Police on 101 quoting the reference number 44160303060… and I’d be really grateful if you could share this blogpost or my public Facebook album: ‘Stolen Bikes’.
Thank you x
UPDATE: 14/08/16 The Giant Escape City W has now been recovered. It was dumped in Golf Course Road, Southampton, which is relatively near to where it was stolen from. I have identified it at the police station, but have left it there for finger-printing. This gives me hope that the others may be found.
UPDATE: 21/08/16 One of the road bikes was advertised on Gumtree by a seller in Southampton. The police have been notified and are following it up.
On the night that my garage was broken into, my neighbour’s shed was broken into. The power pack for his hedge trimmer was stolen and left by my garage door. Someone also attempted to break into the garage of the neighbours two doors along.
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Oh no … so sorry to hear Tamsyn. Hope you get them back.
Thank you
OMG… and I know exactly how much those bikes are worth, holy cow. I’m so very sorry. I would be gutted. 🙁
Thank you – it’s heart-breaking. I’m most upset about Stu’s Ironman being compromised when he has trained so hard, and although the other losses are hard to take, it’s frustrating that my beloved hybrid has gone as I use it every single day to get to and from work. Hopefully they’ll turn up on ebay or similar.
Crossing my fingers for you!! 🙁
Oh no, how terrible! Just to offer a story of hope, I did actually manage to get a bicycle that had been stolen back once. Some kind person was going to buy it off of Craigslist and searched the Bike Index where I had it posted as stolen. Not only did this gem of a person contact me with the ad, he set up a meet with the person and offered a decent amount of money so that the thief would hold onto it until we could get it back. I was riding it again the next week. It’s so shitty to have your bike(s) taken, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that some thoughtful person will think to check before buying your stolen rides.
Thanks – it’s stories like yours that give me hope we might get something back. I’ve set up alerts on every site that I can think of, so maybe we’ll track them down.
Sometime people really suck. This is one of those times.
As mentioned above, bike recovery happens more than you think especially if the thief doesn’t know anything about bikes. We spotted a bike listed locally on eBay. It was a new model for that year tri bike. The wheels alone were top end Zipps worth well over $2000.00 by themselves. The thief listed it as his uncles old bike that was “in his garage for years”. Of course that didn’t jive with the model of the bike or the components that were all new model year. He was asking $450.00. Bells and whistles went out across the bike community and the bike was ultimately returned to it’s owner.
What a shower of f**king bastards. Hope something works out. That is truly awful. Most folks just won’t understand the connection between the rider and their bike. Fingers crossed they turn up.
Thank you. I’ve been to the police station this morning and identified my hybrid bike that was dumped just a couple of miles away from where it was stolen. It was the least valuable (and heaviest) bike, which may have been why it was dumped, but it gives me hope that the others may be found… and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there are fingerprints on the bike.