Stolen: Soma Valhallen 2018 (Cape Town)

[Hairy]

Thanks guys, yea she’s a bit battered and bruised and most of the ancillaries that could be taken off without an allen key it seems - has been. Even the seatpost shim ffs. Then the f@cker that ended up with it obviously didn't know how a quick release works and cranked that thing down like a tap untill it sortof held the post in place and totally screwed that up in the process too. Luckily it is a steel frame, doesn't look like any serious damage. The brakes are wierd too..like locked solid...but i suspect thsts because the levers were pulled with the wheels off and the pads are too far out. It is also full of cement...it was obviously ridden trhough wet building sites.

 

As mentioned i’ll type the elaborate series of events out when infront of a computer again.

But it involves number gangs, drugs and being sold off to 6 people in 3 weeks haha

 

 

I’m stripping her down...cleaning her with a tooth brush and lovingly putting her back together today.

Send all the pics and a lovely description of how you were treated by SAPS and then privately had to reclaim your bike to the SAPS station heads and the local newspapers 

[SL7]

Update:

 

It’s a long story and has been ongoing since the last posts...and i’ll elaborate on It next week when im in front of the computer again so i can type it out for you.

All i’ll say for now is....if your **** gets stolen, and you want a chance at getting it back....Get in touch with Adrian from Green Platoon Patrols. This guy has so much energy invested in outsmarting these criminals...and he is so well connected on the ground.

 

https://green-platoon-security.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral

 

Edit: Sorry, To clarify...The bike has been recovered. ????

The best news I've heard in a long time. Awesome!

[MORNE]

OK.

 

Spent the weekend stripping the SOMA down to nuts and bolts and rebuilding to clean the Dunoon off it and to check the damage. It was prisoner for 3 weeks after all. I had lost hope of getting it back last weekend when everything went quiet and all the leads dried up. I was not buying a replacement bike of similar spec/value either...didn't see the point if I was not going to go do my usual riding on weekends (i'm not riding Conties again).  So I found a nice vintage road bike on here last week in my size for the money of a pair of Hope hubs and got into getting that nice ...to keep fit and all. I have been pondering getting a nice old bike for a while too. This just happened to be in the right place at the right time for the right price.  A nice BMC restored italian - Atala Corsa Professionisti. Columbus SLX tubing with a mishmash of 105/600 components..but in absolute pristine condition. ill post a pic. 

 

Anyway, as you can deduce...I had basically said goodbye to the Soma and accepted it might be gone for good....a sortof emotional emancipation. Thats why i needed to spend the whole weekend getting gclose and personal with it again, just to reconnect with it in a sense. I'm VERY particular over my stuff and know every single scratch, knick, etc....so seeing it like the way it was and that it was caused by someone else had me really miff about the bike after the initial euphoria of actually recovering it after 3 weeks wore off. 

 

SO LETS GET INTO THAT THEN. 

 

Those of you that have been following the series of events will know just how the police handled, and messed up the case right in the first week. I'm bot going to go into that again other than saying that I still have not even received a single phone call from them after they let the one perp go. After that happend about two weeks ago, myself and Adrian (green Platoon patrols in table view) were dejected since there was a real chance of getting the bike back early on if we could get the guy to tell us where it was. But as you know...useless SAPS let him walk out the front door. To be honest...thats about when I gave up and let it go. Adrian on the other hand...he was on a mission. 

 

His wife saw my sisters 'bookface' post about the attack and bike and thats how he initially got involved. I didnt pay him a cent initially...he never asked. I was perplexed. I later asked him WHY? and he merely replied that he loves outsmarting these criminals...just loves it. It shows.  Little did I know just how much he loved it lol. In the background, after I basically wrote the bike off, he was still doing his thing...getting informants on the ground to scope out Dunoon. 

 

around 8am Friday morning I see a missed call from his number. i call back and text to no answer and assumed it was a butt dail...left it at that. We went about our usual business and i spent some time polishing up the newly acquired Atala bike at some stage. At about 11 am, i get a voice message from him telling me that he got someone from SAPS table view to escort him into Dunoon to where his informants say the one perp he initially caught was. I didnt think much of it...he would send me some updates like this every now and then over the 3 week period. I usually sounded casual. At around 12 he sends me another voice note that he has the guys in cuffs again and he's busy 'interigating' him for info lol. He caught the guy twice...did i mention the police didn't even phone yet?

 

at about 1pm I get another voice message that he has now rounded up 5 guys ...all in cuffs...all in the back of his FJ cruiser. They included the initial perp, the guy that attacked me...as well as 3 of the people who have sold on the bike. As he caught them..he would cuff them and make then rat on the next. 

 

We had a pre-natal doctors appointment around 2pm and headed there in the afternoon. I waited in the car while my wife went inside (hospital COVID policy and all). I sat in the car watchng the formula 1 practice session on my phone when i get a phone call from Adrian saying his heading into town with 5 guys in his car to the next person who baught the bike. It sounded like things were catching traction. But i naturally curbed my enthusiasm. 

 

just before 3pm, I get call. Adrian just says:  "Morné...I have your bike". He had all the photos as well as the serial number stamped under the BB so i knew he had it.

I literally didn't know what to say....but remember being super super happy...but the realist in me also immediately started pondering what the condition of it was..having spent 3 weeks changing hands.

Anyway, I asked him where he was becasue i was still waiting for my wife at the hospital. He had made his way from town to Canal walk's basement...where he acquired the bike off the last moegoe who had bought it. This guy was riding it from Dunoon to work for the past week. He apparently bought it for R3000. He unfortunately had to get them to talk by telling them if they rat....they'll be let go, since I wasn't interested in court cases and BS...just the bike. So they obliged. The video footage of them ratting on each other is jsut how you would think,.....hilarious. "No honour among thieves”

 

He offered to deliver the bike to the inlaws place in Durbanville. about 5 minutes later my wife returns from her appointment and we rush there to meet Adrian for the first time….and there it was in the back of his FJ cruiser lol. I took it out and set it on the lawn next to the street as he started explaining the series of events. To be honest I was listening with half an ear and my wife was basically conversing with him, since I was just busy scoping out what was broken, missing etc etc out the corner of my eye the whole time. Turns out a prominent numbers gang (and another - cant remember the name) who operate in dunoon,  opertate a sort of syndicate where they take stolen bikes as payment for drugs…because they can easily offload them to locals….and they are easy pickings as we all know by now. The guy that attacked me was a member of this other gang.  He immediately sold/swopped the bike and phones to the numbers gang guys for cash and drugs on the day it happened. The bike then went into their ’system’ and got sold off 3 times within dunoon. it was then sold off and ended up in town and then sold again to the final guy who bought it in canal walk area where he works at the mall…but stays in Dunoon. (full circle lol) 

 

on the one hand i was miffed that they had to be let go…but that was how he got them to rat, and i got the bike back that way.And to be honest…I was not prepared to waste time, money and energy fighting a broken system in court over a bicycle. Fine, it was armed robbery but I escaped unharmed in the end.  it’s just a pity since they are out there again.Maybe someone else is less lucky next time. 

Lets hope that in this instance they realised they are not invisible or impossible to find….twice.

 

TBC.

Edited September 28, 2020 by morneS555

[Bateleur1]

What a story.  Glad you have you bike back.

[MORNE]

As mentioned, the bike was stripped of anything that could be taken off. The bags, lights, tools, bottles etc. I say they tried to take the saddle off but the raceface post i had installed the day before it was stolen, uses torx nuts. You can see they tried forcing an allen key in there to remove it. In the proces lost the seatpost shim too. Then they where left with a 31.6 hole and a 30.9 post and QR clamp…not knowing how a QR clamp works. they cranked the clamp down so hard to catch the post that the seat tube was oval’d. it absolutely destroyed the seatpost too since it obviously slid down more often than not. When i installed an old shim i had lying around I couldnt get the seat post in. so happy it is a steel frame though. with some massaging and a older post….i could get it close to round again.

 

there were some scratches on the down tube…obviously from dragging it over walls or a fence or whatever, cable ties were cur off with a knife with no regard for the paint and anodising around them. I was most worried about the carbon fork. Obviously plastic does not perform well when in the presence of ham fisted individuals…

Luckily there is only light chip marks under the forks from where they where obviously placed on the floor with the wheels removed.  

The brakes were all stuffed up as mentioned before. Pistons pushed out from pulling the levers with the wheels out obviously, the last guy rode it like this so the pads are basically toast. The the bike was full of dried mud/cement mix. i presume from riding those construction sites in the dunoon area. that took some cleaning. Vinegar helped a lot. The cranks have some new scuff marks. Thats what you get from trying to ride a cleat pedal in normal shoes. Luckily the derailleur has no damage….but the cement had its way with the cassette, chainring and chain.

 

Shes all polished up and rebuilt now, and we have reconnected lol.  I’ve decided to use this bike exclusively in the trail parks from now on. I’ll use the cheaper road bike for longer rides.

 

pic of where she was found in canal walk.

[MORNE]

oval seat tube...

Edited September 28, 2020 by morneS555

[MORNE]

all this is gone now lol

[Pure Savage]

Wow, what a story! Glad you have it back!! 

 

And you now have a road bike

[Pure Savage]

all this is gone now lol

I want those bike bags!!

[MORNE]

Wow, what a story! Glad you have it back!! 

 

And you now have a road bike

[MORNE]

I want those bike bags!!

https://gravelandtour.co.za/product-category/accessories/bags/bike-bags/

 

they can order direct...they brought mine in for me. Took 2 weeks.

https://www.ovejanegrabikepacking.com

[MORNE]

"hoop in die een hand en wat nou weer in die ander?"

lol

[Hairy]

At least you can sleep at night knowing that the people who ratted each other out will certainly be seeing some reckoning soon! 

[Shebeen]

Is the LEGEND Adrian reading this thread?

 

you rockstar

[MORNE]

Is the LEGEND Adrian reading this thread?

 

you rockstar

not sure. 

 

He really is a legend. He is everything you would hope a police officer would be in this country. So much passion for outsmarting and catching the bad guys. He got so angry when SAPS stuffed it all up in the beginning. I think he was more miffed than I was. He is relentless.

He had no real reason to help me out with this. Before this I have never met him before, none of us that connected with him have any affiliation with him or any of his company services. He just wanted to help. As I told him when he dropped the bike off...."hope in humanity restored"