Cycling UK Forum

Overnight last Sunday.
My Kinesis Racelight 4S. 51cm frame. Silver with orange trim. 11-speed 105. Black guards. Distinctive personalised steerer head cap, black and engraved with TONY HARDWICKE in white. Well worn white Flite saddle, Conti 4-seasons tyres.
Frame number KE90087001
Reported to Leicester police, crime number available.
Any sightings please contact any police station or david.anderton@leicestershire.pnn.police.uk

I messaged you about this. I'm pretty sure I found the bike listed on eBay. I messaged you twice via stolen-bike.co.uk. I then, as I happened to already be in conversation with the seller about the bike, because before I thought it was probably stolen I was thinking of buying it, and because I got no response from the stolen-bike messages, thought what the hell, and asked the seller what the frame number is because I wanted to check it's not stolen. He delisted it pronto and didn't respond. And he'd been responding to previous questions about the bike no problem. So I emailed the police, easier said than done, because there was no central Leicestershire email address just a bunch of particular ones, so I just plumped for one (eastleicester.npa@leicestershire.pnn.police.uk) and emailed them the details including the crime reference number.

Maybe it wasn't your bike, maybe it wasn't stolen. Who knows. The specs really did seem the same though as yours though, and the seller was based in your area (Leicester), and it was listed 8 days after it was stolen from you (on 16th Nov). Plus it was listed in an odd, wrong section for bikes, it was in Sporting Goods>Cycling>Bike Components & Parts>Forks. In the conversation with the seller, he told me it was 10 speed though. But from the photos of the bike on eBay I'm sure it's actually 11 speed. The only differences I could see between your one and the listed one was the listed one didn't have mudguards and the personalised head cap wasn't there, but those are easily removed/replaced.

Here's the now ended listing: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/401027829760
The seller also had listed three other bikes too, two of which were sold via eBay one of which wasn't.

Let me know if you want a copy of the full conversation I had with the seller.

Oh, and I've just noticed you say above, "Conti 4-seasons tyres". That's what it has! That wasn't mentioned in the stolen-bike listing. It must be your bike?

Does anyone know how to contact Gavsdad ? He doesn't seem to be aware of any of the above.

Thanks Ben.

I expect you have tried to Private Message Gavsdad.

I have just sent an email to his registration email address.
That is all we can do really, apart from replying to the police email in the original post.

ben--- wrote:I messaged you about this. I'm pretty sure I found the bike listed on eBay. I messaged you twice via stolen-bike.co.uk. I then, as I happened to already be in conversation with the seller about the bike, because before I thought it was probably stolen I was thinking of buying it, and because I got no response from the stolen-bike messages, thought what the hell, and asked the seller what the frame number is because I wanted to check it's not stolen. He delisted it pronto and didn't respond. And he'd been responding to previous questions about the bike no problem. So I emailed the police, easier said than done, because there was no central Leicestershire email address just a bunch of particular ones, so I just plumped for one (eastleicester.npa@leicestershire.pnn.police.uk) and emailed them the details including the crime reference number.

The original post has an email address....

Gavsdad wrote:Any sightings please contact any police station or david.anderton@leicestershire.pnn.police.uk

Graham wrote:Thanks Ben.

I expect you have tried to Private Message Gavsdad.

I have just sent an email to his registration email address.
That is all we can do really, apart from replying to the police email in the original post.

Yes I PM'd him.

I'll send the email I sent to the police previously to that address in his post now. Be better if he knew though. As I mentioned, I'd already previously emailed the police, not the same address as in his above message. I'm guessing to get the police into action would take more prompting, and the original owner is the best to do that. Anyway, I'll send again to the police.

So what was going on here does anyone think? I messaged him via stolen bikes, here, and on RideWithGPS, and replied to this thread. No reply from any of that. The bike listed by Rob L Dear on eBay really did look like the one apparently stolen. It matched in most/all details. Was being advertised in the same geographical location, and was listed a few days after the robbery was said to have taken place. It might not have been the bike, but it would be a lot of coincidences adding up. All seems a bit odd to me. Why would you list your stolen bike in several place then completely ignore likely finding of it?

Thanks for all your efforts on this Ben.

I suppose we will never know as long as Gavsdad fails to respond. ( He last logged in on 1st Dec 1015. )

Speculation is pointless.

Graham wrote:Speculation is pointless.

Yup, you're right.

Ben/Graham.

Thank you both for all your efforts on the subject of my stolen bike.

I did reply to Ben saying I was aware that the bike was on ebay and the police were investigating. Judging by the tone of his reply last weekend after unfortunately having his bike stolen, he did not receive this message. I hope you are having more luck than I did.

On the point of me being off-line and not replying to posts, this is partly to do with the theft and partly other reason - which I will not go into.

Finally I must say that I really do appreciate the efforts that have been put in and hope to be more responsive in the future once I have myself 'back on the level'.

Regards

Gavsdad.