Just when the holiday season seems to be going so well......

Dave W

So the holidays are officially over. The wife and I trashed the Christmas tree today and set about cleaning up and reorganizing the apartment. We are hoping to buy a house soon, so we're saving all our boxes for future use moving. I grab the boxes to take down into the storage locker in the basement. I get to the locker, unlock the combination lock, and much to my surprise the door falls out towards me when I try to pull it open. Shocked, I glance inside and see only one mountain bike instead of two. Crying or Very sad

Somebody decided that I was giving them my 2004 Jamis Dakar Sport as a Christmas present. So I call the police and start thinking about the situation. Our apartment building has locking entry doors so there are a limited number of people with access to the basement. The bike is black and grey and the basement is poorly lit. Our storage locker is so crammed with stuff that you can't even see the bikes from the one side, and there are only small chicken wire screened areas on each side of a plywood door where you can look in EXCEPT form the adjoining storage locker. Coincidentally, the adjoining storage locker is now empty because the people (only met the guy once, and he's about my age) moved out recently.

I ride the bike and I lock it up. This wasn't someone randomly walking past and peeking into my storage locker to see it. Up until the guy with the adjoining storage locker moved out, you would have been hard pressed to even know the bike was in there, much less be able to identify what it was.

The police officer shows up. We talk. I explain the situation and my thoughts. My wife saw the bike in the locker last time she was doing laundry about two weeks ago. We tell the officer that they had to have moved her bike out of the locker to take my bike. Their fingerprints must be on her bike. He said he'd call the sergeant about the fingerprints. Reports back to me a little while later that the basement is dusty and it's been too long and they aren't going to be able to find prints on the bike. Been too long? We have no idea how long it's been? What am I paying taxes for? I know $1100 may not be much to this officer, but I loved that bike and was not planning on spending that much on a bike ever again. I was planning on taking care of it and keeping it for a long, long time. I thought the job of police officers is to catch criminals, not just fill out paperwork and tell you "tough luck". Not to mention that we're not talking about an unlimited number of people who could have stolen it. I doubt that grandpa downstairs decided that he might like to get into mountain biking and decided to rip me off. Confused

So now what's my situation? If the guy's not taking prints he's not likely to be going to the trouble of tracking down the neighbor who moved out, much less get a search warrant. So unless someone either offers to show him the bike or he stumbles across it, he's not going to be able to help me at all is he?

Done venting. Crying or Very sad

Tyler T · Posted: Jan 05, 2008 1:16 pm Post subject:

Dave W, that sucks. Getting ripped off like that always feels like such a violation. Unfortunately, the police absolutely do not care about that kind of theft. They basically come to talk to you and fill out a report as nothing more than a formality. It really does suck. I'm sorry. Do you have renter's insurance? You may be able to make a claim under that policy if you do.

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

Track down where the guy moved to.

Rocko · Posted: Jan 05, 2008 4:46 pm Post subject:

Exactly. It can't be that hard. Is he registered in the phone book? I bet he forwarded his mail, send him soemthing in the mail (act like your some give away company) who knows the asshat may reply back. You should be able to find this guy.

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

It blows nuts, but you need to make the claim on your insurance and eat the deductible.

You pay for it, use it. Don't go trying to start something that could easily turn dangerous over a bike.

Hell, in some cities cops won't even show up for "non-emergency" situations. I know it is complete bullcrap (we do pay for their services), but it is what it is. They've got better things to do. You know, like generate revenue for the city.

Insurance claim. Make the call.

dung · Outlaw Joined: 22 Oct 2004 Posts: 198

Check with your landlord. He may have left a forwarding address for the landlord to send the security deposit. Don't tell the landlord why your asking. If he asks tell him you borrowed something of value and want to return it to him and didn't know he was moving out.

pet575 · Posted: Jan 06, 2008 6:26 pm Post subject:

Dude, this exact same thing happened to me when I lived in an apartment, except they got both my bike and my wife's bike. It wasn't anyone in my building, it was people who were burglarizing apartments in the area that were known to have those lockers. They would just look for an empty one next to the full one, and go through the chicken wire. Don't be so quick to blame the guy who is gone. Savvy burglars know those units are down there, and keep a pretty good eye on how to slip in those doors when someone is carrying in groceries or something.

Sorry bout the situation and the apparent lack of help from the police. I ended up making a renter's insurance claim and getting a better bike out of the deal, though. Hopefully you have it. Good luck.

kmagnuss · Posted: Jan 06, 2008 6:45 pm Post subject:

Most people can get renter's insurance for less than $10 a month. I hope you have it.

Dave W · Posted: Jan 06, 2008 7:38 pm Post subject:

I've got renter's insurance, and I'm working with my insurance guy already. It just sucks that with a $500 dollar deductible I'm going to be coughing up a lot of dough for a replacement bike that I may not like as much. With a house down payment coming up, I wasn't looking to be making any big ticket purchases in the near future. Some of you might laugh, but for me this is a big ticket purchase. Luckily they didn't take the wife's bike too. They actually had to move it out of the way to get my bike, then they put it back in the unit before standing the door back up in the frame.

At this point the part that bothers me most isn't necessarily the fact that my bike is gone. As much as now is a bad time, part of me would love an excuse to upgrade a little. The part that bothers me most is how helpless I am to do anything about it. I guess I actually expected to feel like something would get accomplished when I called the police. I should have known better. As far as I could tell the officer's biggest goal was to convince me that anybody could have stolen it and there's no way to know who it could have been so he is justified in putting in absolutely no effort other than filling out some paperwork. Gotta love it. The police have more than enough manpower to hassle me on a regular basis when I'm out wakeboarding, but actually solving a crime is asking too much. Shouldn't the guy have at least asked what color the bike is?

Working on tracking down the guy who moved out. He's not in the phone book, but I have a contact that might be able to bend the rules a little for me to possibly get some info on him.

J_DOGG · Posted: Jan 07, 2008 4:55 am Post subject:

Dave W, They have speeding tickets to write leave these guys alone will you....LOL....

You are learning the hard way - that is like real work and most cops don't like real work they like easy stuff like writing speeding tickets all day long. The only way a beat cop will ever catch a crook is if he pulls the crime right in front of him or he pulls him over for speeding and finds drugs and guns in his car.

Good luck with your bike - you will never see it again I suspect.

Tbonez · Posted: Jan 07, 2008 6:04 am Post subject:

DUDE
When will you find these guys? I
mean, do you have any promising leads?

POLICEMAN
Leads, yeah. I'll just check with
the boys down at the Crime Lab.
They've assigned four more detectives
to the case, got us working in shifts.

Sorry to hear about the theft...Liars and thiefs are right down there with rapist and murders...

Broccoli B · Posted: Jan 07, 2008 11:13 am Post subject:

Here's the deal, you have insurace, looks to me like the MSRP on the bike is about $2000, get $1500 from your insurance, buy a new bike and call it a day. No police force ANYWHERE is going to spend time taking prints, analyzing them, tracking down old renters, for something your insurance is going to pay for. Get real, we don't live in a perfect world, anyone renting an apartment should just assume that at some point somethings going to get stolen, criminals LOVE apartments.

Dave W · Posted: Jan 09, 2008 5:41 pm Post subject:

OK, I need some guidance on dealing with the insurance company.

We're working out the details on what the replacement value of my bike is. I told the claims adjuster the truth about everything including how much I paid for the bike. I got it for a really good price, but they maintain that they will reimburse me for a comparable replacement. In our initial discussions I told him that Jamis sort of eliminated that "level" of the Dakar and there is now a level that is not nearly as nice, and one that is quite a bit more expensive. His initial response was that I would be reimbursed for the next level up if that is the case. Then he got back to me after he talked to his bike information person. Now he's talking numbers and the numbers don't equal out to the price of the bike that is the next level up like we had previously discussed. But, I'm having a hard time getting a straight answer from him about exactly what I'll be reimbursed for. I told him his numbers were lower than the "comparable" 2008 model and he just keeps saying that I'll be reimbursed for a "comparable" bike.

If I don't get the balance of the money until I send in a receipt from the purchase, I don't want to go and buy something that will end up costing me more than the deductible. I'm assuming that he's basically saying they'll cover me for whatever bike I purchase (within reason) but he doesn't want to tell me to go on a shopping spree and get a $3K bike. Is that a correct assumption? Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

How much leeway do I have in my decision? I'm assuming that the insurance company is mainly concerned about the money even though they keep saying "comparable replacement". Would they get upset if I bought a different model as long as the cost was roughly the same?

Dragonlady8 · Black Widow Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 9198

Do you recall what your policy states for replacement costs?
Also what is your deductible?

8824 · Posted: Jan 09, 2008 7:14 pm Post subject:

Dave W, kmagnuss is your insurance guy, he knows his shi t

Chavez nailed it all, eat the deductible and if you continue to rent pay the higher premium and get a lower deduct until you buy a house. And also ask about full replacement insurance.

Here is something to ponder, my friend rents a house in a upscale suburb. some kids slashed tires and spray painted houses, garages and cars. He had two cars outside, all tires slashed and garage spray painted. 1000 dollar deducts on each car. They nailed nearly 20 houses in two nights. I have some pics somewhere.

I don't even leave my car in my own driveway out over night.

Dave W · Posted: Jan 10, 2008 4:33 am Post subject:

I'd have to look into the fine print on replacement costs. Deductible is $500. Looking to move into a house by the time our current lease is up.

Broccoli B · Posted: Jan 10, 2008 6:33 am Post subject:

Dave W, you should be able to just get a check from the insurance company, maybe it is different here in Michigan.

This fall I had a claim on my insurance(boat damage), dealership wrote up an estimate of repairs then 1 week later i had a check in hand from the insurance company, with a "verbal agreement" That I was going to spend said money on fixing the boat.

howabouttheiris · Addict Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 677 City: Austin, TX

Don't know if you'll get MSRP. Probably just current value.

In these cases, unless you gots the good insurance, they find whatever local rag paper, find the same bike in the classifieds and pass that off as the value.

$2000 new = $525 in the paper - $500 deductable = $25. and then your insurance rates go up $25 per year.

Good luck!

Dave W · Posted: Apr 03, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject:

OK, so after many many unreturned phone calls and much debate and nonsense, I am close to being done with the insurance claim. Picked up my new ride last Saturday. Making the jump to clipless so I'm waiting for my shoes to come in before I can really give it a try. A little nervous about going through the clipless learning curve on a brand new bike.

Insurance company: Complete pain in the rear. The claims adjuster flat out lied to me and told me that according to the bike shop I could get an '07 Dakar Sport. Funny, there's no such thing.

Jamis: Awesome. Between the guys at the bike shop who helped me work with the insurance company to the Jamis rep who I've been in touch with: nothing but a pleasure to deal with. On top of just being pleasant people to work with, I got a free upgrade to the '08 model because of an inventory error on their part.

Anyone have any tips on handlebar length/width? The bar is 27" stock. I'm thinking of taking it down to 26" or 25". Need to figure out how to get dual compound grips off without wrecking them while I'm at it.

edrex · Posted: Apr 03, 2008 4:22 pm Post subject:

Riding clipless is great, you'll get it fast. The efficiency you gain with them is very noticable. Have fun on the new ride and I'm glad it all worked out for you.

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

Dave W, sweet ride!!

don't sweat the clipless - it'll take you no time at all.

as far as the handlebars....ride it a while and see if you like it. if you really want to take the grips off, use wd40 w/ the straw - wiggle that straw up under the grips and spray the lube in there and just work the grips until they come off.

pet575 · Posted: Apr 04, 2008 7:39 am Post subject:

+1^^^^^

Clipless is awesome. My learning curve was:

1. Forget about them, fall over sideways a few times in a tight spot;
2. Puss out a little and start clicking out too soon in tight spots; then
3. Figure out that you really don't need to click out unless you're going down (and you learn pretty quickly how to easily and rapidly click out of them)

If you're any kind of experienced rider on technical terrain, you'll be fine after a few rides. If you're like my buddy who bought a mountain bike to ride on a paved trail, and turns into a shivering b!tch on an offroad trail, it will take you longer.

pancoast · Outlaw Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 193

Like jt09 said wd40 is fine to take grips off butnan easier way is to use a little compressed air under the grip and slide it off. When you put a new pair on just slide it on as far as you can without using anything, then with an air nozzle shoot compressed air under the grip and push it on. Your grip will never slip, there is no drying time as with lubes and its just plain easy.

Dave W · Posted: Apr 04, 2008 7:19 pm Post subject:

Getting them on I've got figured out. A guy at a bike shop told me to give them a good splach of rubbing alcohol and jam them on quick. The alcohol evaporates and then you're good to go.

Finally got the insurance company to commit to the depreciation check today. The bike is officially mine. Time to set it up. I'm going to give the handlebar a shot as it is, but I'm skeptical that it's going to work on the kind of technical trails that are most common around here. I'm just looking for every edge I can get to keep up with the wife on the flat windy singletrack. On the downhill I can take off on her, we're about even on the climbing, but she schools me on the relatively flat technical stuff.

This is my first air shock. The sag is about spot on at 180psi (right around my weight). Feels pretty darn stiff at that pressure, it will be interesting to see how the trails feel. Last bike had a WTB Laser saddle that worked great for me. The Rocket V on this bike looked similar so I figured I would be fine with it and didn't give it a second thought. Just sitting on it and spinning a bit in the apartment has me worried though. Feels rock hard in the middle.

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

cool thing about bikes? LOTS of stuff to play w/! that's why you have screwdrivers and wrenches - to adjust all that!

are you saying the seat itself feels rock hard or that the rear suspension doesn't seem to be "bouncing" at all?

Dave W · Posted: Apr 05, 2008 4:55 am Post subject:

That's the thing, not really sure what's going on with the feel of the seat. Initial thought is that the middle section is just pretty hard. Either way I realize all of this judgement is really premature at this point. Some things break in, other things get adjusted..... I'm sure I'll be able to get everything working great after a little riding time.

Totally agree with the idea of lots of things to play with. This bike was all kinds of adjustments and tweaking that can be done, especially with travel adjustment in the fork. The XT Shadow rear derailler looks pretty wild too.

What does everyone else here ride?

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

it sounds to me like classic new toy apprehension! you have a new toy w/ all kinds of bells and whistles - a lot of which you just aren't familiar w/ but can't wait to try out. you need to get out there and ride that bad boy!!

i ride a 10 yr old gary (big sur fisher hardtail. it's about half a size too small for me, but i really only ride for fitness on firetrail type terrain, or on the street. only aftermarket stuff i have are some monkeybars to get a bit taller on the front end and a rockshox seat post to take a bit of the bang out of my butt. wtb split tail seat too. road slicks for my rubber.

going for a quick 20 miles today after i clean the house a bit.

LeHabanero · Addict Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 786 City: hagerstown

Dave W, I mountain bike with my 20'' freeagent Laughing

Every time I got riding with my friends I insist that I use my 20'' and every time I can barely move afterwards Rolling Eyes

No gears or suspension FTL

Being able to run up the hill with bike in one hand, throwing sticks with the other FTW

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

LeHabanero, nothing wrong w/ bmx rides - here's my next bike - a 26" Texas Fireman's Cruzer:

http://www.firemansbikes.com/original.htm

Dave W · Posted: Apr 05, 2008 8:59 am Post subject:

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

who doesn't love new toys w/ lots of stuff to adjust and tweak???? Mr. Green

when i got my bike a buddy of mine worked at the big bike store in town so i got the total hook up on his discount. that place was my crack house. couldn't go in there w/o spending cash on SOMETHING!

Dave W · Posted: Apr 05, 2008 11:59 am Post subject:

Already contemplating the possibility of moving to a bigger front rotor and I haven't even really ridden it yet. Very Happy

Dave W · Posted: Jul 15, 2008 5:28 pm Post subject:

OK, there have been some mechanical hitches that I've been working through, but I think everything is finally dialed in and working correctly.

Entered in a local mountain bike race that is this Saturday. A friend entered with me and now he's talking all kinds of smack about how he plans to make me look stupid by by beating me on his $300 Trek. Bike was out of commission for 3 weeks after I blew a seal in the fork. Warranty covered it but I missed some valuable training time. Been doing some pretty serious interval training to try to make up for lost time. It's now the week before the race and I'm concentrating on practicing the race course. Just went through it tonight, and plan on doing it tomorrow night and Thursday night. Figured I'd take Friday off to try to get well rested.

The race is a time trial/individual start through a technical singletrack course. I've got the course measured at about 2.5 miles. I finished it tonight on my first time through in about 22 minutes. Hoping that familiarity will help me with gear selection and get my time under 20 before race day.

Anyone have any tips? Diet, last minute training, warm up?