Does crime pay?

does crime pay?

this morning started off nicely with my usual early morning schedule. got up and finished making some miso/lemon dressing and organic peanut sauce for tomorrow's party at barbara's place. i then went over to her place to leave it in her fridge with instructions, and started making my way to work.

and then my phone rang. "uh, hey... this is eric from cambridge bikes. what's the name of that kid on the team who had his bike stolen some time ago? i think we have it here in the shop. can you like, come over ASAP to ID it?"

whoa.

mark cote did have his bike stolen from his car a few months ago. it was a custom-made custom-painted GURU with Zipp 909 wheels. there is only one bike in the world exactly like his.

"i'll be over in 10 minutes!" i yelled back. started pedaling furiously on my single-speed and put so much torque on it that the rear wheel was pulled on the drive-side and i had to actually stop to reset it.

i rode over to cambridge bikes just as the cops were showing up. indeed, it was mark's bike! it was exactly as it was the day it was stolen, with the scruff marks and everything from his crashes. turns out that it had been "given" to a guy who wanted to put platform pedals and cushy seats on it, so he brought it in to cambridge bikes.

yeah, right!

mark's bike is custom-geometry, and is basically a 49x52 since mark has long torso and short-ish legs. the guy was a 6'2" guy with an enormous girth. clearly he could barely ride the bike without his gut spilling over the top tube. he was arguing and was threatening eric when he found out that eric had called the cops on him. good thing the cops came quickly.

now the bike is in the possession of cambridge police, and since mark is in canada working for cervelo for the summer, we may have to pick it up on his behalf somehow.

so kids, crime does NOT pay. thanks to watchful pairs of eyes like eric's. and i guess this is one advantage of having a custom-made, custom-spec'ed, custom-painted bike: your buddies know exactly that it has to be yours. kudos to cambridge bikes for looking after us at MIT cycling!