Bad day at the office....

[fossyant]

Oh no. Attempted theft, then vandalism ? Argh.

 

[NormanD]

The Bastids!! ... I hope you get it repaired quick mate and there's not too much damage done to the parts and frame, at least the recumbent is still there (even if it is in bits), could have been a lot worse and a bigger loss to you

 

[Mista Preston]

what happened Andy?

 

[arallsopp]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I can't say much until the police have finished their bit.

My suspicion is deliberate vandalism, I'm afraid. The bike is kept under a cover, padlocked to an iron grill, down a flight of steps below street level, out of sight from the road, and behind an iron gate. The steps to it are in plain view of the office, and anyone tampering with it would be immediately visible should somebody enter or exit the building.

Given the incident occurred in the middle of the day, your responsible vandal would need some sort of mechanism to ensure the office was empty before even approaching the bike. A fair amount of venom towards the owner would also help chivy things along a bit.

Its all conjecture of course... It was probably squirrels. Or badgers. Nasty things badgers.

Hmmm....

 

[zigzag]

oh noo!.. why?? it looks messy in the photo, but being an "upwrong" rider i struggle to see what's broken/missing (i hope - nothing!).

 

[arallsopp]

Just had to run through the damage for David at Laidback who is moving heaven and earth to help me.

Here's a quick run down of the things I found last night. From front to back:

• The cables have been torn from the front light (with the ends lost inside the casing).
• The 53T ring has been bent approximately 2mm out of position. I have tried to straighten this.
• The front derailleur cage has been bent sideways. This is almost impossible to bend back at the moment.
• The internal steel cabling to the front derailleur has sheared in situ. The hose feeding the cable through the boom has broken.
• The carbon boom has been torn off. The bolts have sheared (one has snapped all together) so I suspect a fair amount of stress has been enacted upon both boom and tubing. There are cracks to the paint around the lugs for the bolts. The end of the aluminium tubing is not a regular oval/circular shape, and is compressed on one side only. I'm taking a non symmetrical cross section as indicative of an issue.
• The front wheel is gristly, and out of true by around 6mm.
• The left side fork arm is approximately 10mm ahead of the right side one.
• The linkage between bars and tie rod has a lot of play. The bars are bent inwards, with the bar end shifter on the left spun out of position. The bar tops are pointing inwards where weight has been applied sideways to the bars. I have bent the tie rod back into shape, but there is a lot of resistance in the steerer.
• The chain has been snapped with links lost. The break looks to have happened around the midship idler, the guide for which is now fouling the bearing.
• The rear stays were approximately 35mm too narrow to re-admit the rear wheel. With a lot of force, the rear stays will accept the wheel, but I have had to take the front and rear callipers off as both rotors were bent out of shape.
• The axle holding the rear wheel in place has bent. The QR skewer has given up.
• The rear wheel doesn't spin, but I'd estimate it is out of true by about 10mm.
• The rear derailleur is bent, as is the hanger. I have bent them back into shape.
• The rear light has an all new break across the lens.

That's it for a cursory glance. I'm sure there's more...

I've bent a few things back into shape, mainly so I can put the Furai back on her shelf. Having her greet me from the kitchen table wasn't doing much for my mood at breakfast. She at least looks like a bike again.

I still can't get the boom into the tubing, and know that a few of the parts I bent back went extremely spongy in the last few degrees.

 

[Rykard]

that is awful, the amount of damage is unbelievable. The scrote must have been in a right rage

 

[zigzag]

omg, the guy really took some effort, i hope he injured himself in a process. he must know you and be quite upset about something - i can't imagine an ordinary vandal trying so hard for no reason.. i'm sure justice will be done (and you will be doing next lel on a new one). really sorry to hear what's happened!

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Hopefully you can fix her up to a useable state and then continue to leave here where you do... only with the addition of a covert camera covering the area in case such a thing should happen again... then off to the Police, or failing that some nice revenge exacted when they least expect it.

B*stards!

 

[topcat1]

jesus! i've been looking at that pic for 2 days........speachless

upgrade Andy don't just repair it, make it better/faster, that's what i'd do

 

[beanzontoast]

That amount of damage must have taken time to inflict. Any CCTV in the vicinity of where you park it at all?

 

[summerdays]

Wow - I hadn't realised it was that much damage ... I assumed someone had just tried to nick it or the bits off it whereas that sounds like it was just intending to cause as much damage as possible. I don't suppose there is any CCTV near by point even vaguely in the direction? (To see if there was someone hanging around loitering for a while?) There are some sad human beings out there.

 

[Mista Preston]

I cant believe what I am reading Andy, I am so sorry to hear this. Like TC i am speechless.

To inflict this damage in such a way would have taken some time and effort. I would assume that the person who did this targeted you and may have even come from your office? or followed you there, what did the old bill have to say?

 

[Adasta]

My suspicion is deliberate vandalism, I'm afraid...A fair amount of venom towards the owner would also help chivy things along a bit.

Would you elaborate?

 

[martint235]

Would you elaborate?

If there's any chance of police involvement it's probably best not to elaborate at this stage on a public forum.