RE: [CR]750 bikes stolen!-Sanity Check.

(Example: Framebuilding:Tubing:Falck)

Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 20:13:29 -0500
From: "Harvey M Sachs" <sachshm@cox.net>
To: 2wheelseal@earthlink.net, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org, sante_pogliaghi@mac.com
Subject: RE: [CR]750 bikes stolen!-Sanity Check.


This story doesn't pass one sanity check: There were not 750 adult bikes in 2 forty foot containers. It happens that I occasionally help a non-profit load bikes into containers for shipment to developing countries, where they are repaired, cleaned up, and sold to those who can use them. We can get more than 450 bikes into a 50' container, but you don't want to look at how: --> remove pedals and handlebars; zip-tie to frameset. Lower saddle as far as possible. --> start packing bikes. We fail when we get fewer than 18 across, alternating front facing forward with front facing back. When the group gets about the right distance from the edge, sit down and push the stack sideways to compress it. Last bike gets dropped into place (usually a small bike). Lay down plywood over this set, and lay in another set. The roughly two feet above the second stack gets filled with children's bikes, lying flat, and slid over each other on cardboard. The last bikes loaded are done with one door closed, with one volunteer standing on a ladder.

Note that this is dense pack, not what you do with vintage bikes of any type. No one worries about paint scrapes.

For proper protection, I would guess that the upper limit is 200 - 250 bikes per container.

harvey "scarred, not scared" sachs mcLean va.

This "heist" happened several years ago, but nothing was ever really publicized about it until about last year. Sounds like an odd deal to me.

Scott McCaskey Dalworthington Gardens, TX

In a message dated 11/01/2005 1:31:33 P.M. Central Standard Time, writes:

Have people heard about what's possibly the mother of all bike heists? Two 40 foot shipping containers belonging to collector Leon Dixon (www.NBHAA.com) were stolen in Santa Ana, California. Not many of the bikes (which are world-class museum pieces) seem to be lightweights but everyone in the used bike market ought to keep an eye out.

http://nbhaa.com/indexSTOLEN.html

-Jack Bissell
tucson, az