Bike Recovery

Triathlon Forum
1

So my friend who knows that I am into Triathlon and cycling came to me this morning with a Colnago c50 with upgrades everywhere. Knowing this friend for a long time, the bike is probably the property of another cyclist in the area. I think I would like to try to find the real owner and create some good biking karma; bad karma on the bike is not something I want to mess with. I thought of post something on Craigslist, searching the stolen bike registries and contacting a few LBS. It doesn’t appear the bike has received much love lately as there is dust all over it and it needs a chain lube badly, which might mean the real owner might not have any interest in recovering the bike.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I can do to find the owner of this beautiful bike? Maybe being apart from it will make them realize they need to give some love and start riding again; I would be happy to restart a cycling career.

Thanks,
Brian

2

Did your friend happen to say where he came about the bike?

If it were me I’d troll the local bike shops and groups to see if they know anybody with that kind of bike. A C50 is not that common and somebody may know the owner. Personally I think a craigslist ad is inviting more trouble than may be wanted.

3

Sounds like you need to lose a friend
.

4

He did mention what area the bike is from so I have a good idea which LBS to approach first and hope they know something.

I was also thinking that craigslist might invite some trouble and I would have to answer a lot of email responses. I think I’ll try talking to the LBS first and see where that takes me. Like I said, the bike has clearly not been ridden for quite some time so I don’t think this person has been doing many group rides, unless he has been riding a different bike. There is dust everywhere, the tires have no air in them and I can tell where the tires have sat because of a flat spot.

thanks for the response

5

ha, I’m going to be in his wedding in about a month.

I know for a fact that he’s not the one who “borrowed” the bike directly from the owner.

6

Hold on. Are you or are you not in possession of stolen property?

If yes, you’re breaking the law and should just turn the bike over to the cops.

7

Good on you for trying to return it.
Why not just call the police and ask if someone’s reported one stolen?

8

I think I should hand it over to the proper authorities and let them handle it. I hope it gets back to it’s owner.

9

I think I should hand it over to the proper authorities and let them handle it. I hope it gets back to it’s owner.

i don’t know how it is handled in your part of the world, but here if I was to turn the bike over to the police, they would stick it in a locked room with a 1000 other bikes and then if nobody claims it (or thinks to claim it from the police) they will auction it off.
The cops don’t care about finding the original owner, they have donuts to eat.