Duane_Bosch

Guys just some thoughts from someone who has been through the misery of having a bike stolen, paid out, recovering the bike and having the insurance company take the bike back. 1. Don't take the law into your own hands. Best case the oke selling the bike will lay a charge of theft against you for stealing your own bike. Worst case. Well use your imagination. 2. Don't buy the bike back. (I did this) All you're doing is rewarding crime and you're also telling the scumbags what the bikes are worth 3. If insurance has paid you out THE BIKE NO LONGER BELONGS TO YOU. Inform your broker and the police but that's it. 4. Would you really want it back? It's kind of like having a partner be unfaithful. It's just never the same again. I had a motorbike stolen and recovered and when I got it back the love affair was over. 5. The person selling the bike is unlikely to be the thief of the bike but he's probably a hardened criminal. See point #1. 6. It's easy to be bok on a keyboard but actually getting in your car and driving into gang town to recover a bicycle is a whole different ball game. Sorry for your loss @Lee.M

Ja you also make valid points. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this whole bag vs cardboard box debate. It all comes down to what works for you. For me the cost and storage restraints of having 2 bike bags/boxes (my wife also rides) plus the advantage of the ability to rent road bikes in Europe make it a hard no.

I'll never take my own road bike to Europe again. On our Mallorca trip we tacked on 2 days in Paris and on our recent Spain trip we tacked on 2 days in Istanbul and 2 days in Tangier which would have been impossible if we had lugged 2 huge bike boxes across.

Unpopular opinion incoming. I've done multiple Alps trips, Italy, Mallorca and last year Southern Spain so this is a somewhat educated opinion. For international road rather rent. No hassle of bike boxes. which makes moving around a million times easier. Also your bike won't get wrecked and your rental bike is already there so no stressing about will my bike actually show up? As far as bike boxes go I'm generally against them unless you travel with a bike A LOT! They are massive so storage is a big issue for something you use at best a handful of times a year They tend to be super heavy Not to mention expensive For me carboard boxes from the bike shop are the way.

How often do you fly/are planning to fly with a bike and to where? Local/International? Roadie/MTB?

I don't carry a phone when I run but there was a guy phoning the cops from a safe distance when we ran past on the way down. I live 400m from chappies so we're often there to run/ride/walk etc. It's a beautiful place but the amount of dodgy **** that goes on up there is quite scary. And that's in the day time.

Someone i know who is a police reservist reckons they have these bit blitzes around the 16th of December and there's a bunch of fanfare and noise in the media to scare the people into hopefully behaving themselves and then the cops are effectively on skeleton staff because they also have kids and want to go on holiday in December. I have nothing to back this up. Just what i was told from someone who is a reservist cop.

This morning my wife and I went for a run on Chappies. And at one of the lookout spots there were 2 cars and a group of +-6 people drinking and HEAVILY inebriated. Party still happening from god knows when. There didn't look to be a designated driver so they're going to get behind the wheel of those cars on chappies. Blows my mind.

Just to clarify. That cheap as chips DH bike has done a Morzine trip and was just great.

I got a cheap as chips DH bike that only comes out when the hellsend shuttle days happen. Totally worth it for me.

I don't think so. He'll get a factory ride in WSBK quite easily if all the good rides are taken in Moto GP.

RIP to the riders who have lost their lives. Slightly off topic. In my family when we go out for dinner the standing agreement is the payer (usually me) gets to have a few beers. Use it, Don't use it.

Same. Watching that video was horrifying. I've ridden that road hundreds of times. Time to sell the wife's and my roadies and get back into mountain biking. When we were in Spain in September even on the busy B roads we felt completely safe. Like COMPLETELY 100% SAFE!

I can only post from my experience on this. My wife has a bike she never uses so I posted an ad on here 3 days ago. Within a few hours bikemarket messaged me with an offer. Was it lower than advertised? For sure. But here's the thing. I'm not in the business of selling bikes and I really don't feel like spending weeks dealing with oil rig workers and randoms querying if the bike is still available to then fall off of the planet. So off it goes to bikemarket. I'll stick to my job and I'll let them do theirs. I honestly hope they sell it for a tidy profit.