Sunday morning one of our Shimano employees woke up to their garage door partially open and 4 bikes gone. This occurred in Orange County, CA. A couple of these bikes had some very special parts including a Di2 Triple on the Santa Cruz Blur LTC. Di2 has not been delivered to any customers and this is pre-production parts which should make this extremely hard to sell and easy to spot. If you see anyone trying to sell a used bike with Di2 with "
prototype" printed on some of the parts it is most likely stolen!
In the photos above there is a spec list with details of what was on the bikes at the time of the theft and the most recent photos available. Parts that were different from the photo were noted. Please keep an eye out for any of these bikes or parts. Nothing else was stolen, so they targeted the bikes, so they may know something about bikes as they left behind a few other bikes that were not as valuable. We appreciate any help on the return of these bikes.
Contact Shimano here.
Point is, nothing is truly safe from theft. You have to take the best precautions you can and having insurance doesn't hurt.
Is this Pinkbikes's first in a daily, ongoing series of posts where EVERYONE'S stolen bikes will be posted? Surely you mean to offer this kind of stolen bike broadcast to all users, not just one employee from a major bike parts company?
I'm sure that's what you guys have planned. Right?
Make a case why that matters at all, and I'll retract my statement.
Let me save you some time... "It's important to keep it out of the hands of SRAM so they can't reverse engineer and copy it" is stupid.
This is a prototype that was most likely being tested by this employee. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe his job was just to show it off on the local trails or bring it to demo days. Regardless, it can be quickly replaced by Shimano to continue serving its intended purpose. While something like a prototype of the iPhone, or a drone being captured by Iran can, and most certainly will be reverse engineered. But Apple has a ton of fierce competitors, as does the U.S. military. But Shimano has ONE real drivetrain competitor in the MTB world, SRAM. They are developing electronic shifting as we speak, but they wouldn't be stupid enough to infringe on any of Shimanos design patents.
So again... What's your point? If you have one at all.
MY point is that Pinkbike is corny for using its site to help ONE person, and ONE company find something that was stolen. Who is that serving? Us? No. Absolutely not. I'm sorry the dude lost a lot of expensive bikes, that sucks. But this guy can also get a new prototype if he really needs it. So once more... State your point and I'll honor your Pinkbike Plus status by retracting.
On the other hand pinkbike you could start doing a page like this were users get to submit here stolen bikes, and pink bike post them.
Ever notice that firemen get a ll more wiggle room from police. ..doctors get slightly better treatment from fellow doctors...military get special discounts/privileges. ..etc
Its called professional courtesy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMz1tXBVT1s
and the very simple fix:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgwJXwKK3f4
I have a Santa Cruz V10 and Titus El Guapo + a Triumph Tiger 800 XC in my garage. We have our garge door open quite a bit (even though the HOA frowns on that). Maybe I should think about bike locks either way.
Feel bummed for the folks who got their babies jacked. I see bikes like the ones pictured above all the time on the trails but I'd think it be pretty hard to ID a stolen rig when it's flying past you.
Sucks to hear about the stolen bikes, hope he'll find them back!
Everyone should, especially w/wife and kids!
orangecounty.craigslist.org/bop/4827242897.html
Cover up windows in ur gargare, disarm quick release mechanisms.