Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Duppie on March 31, 2013 at 8:24am

h' copied the municpal code of Chicago. You live in Evanston. It doesn't apply to you as long as you stay there.

Not sure why you get so worked up. Shouldn't you be having dinner at the Olive Garden now? ;)

John C. Wilson said:

This site had best take down it's Marketplace section forthwith. Everything there or that has been there is in violation of the above.

I don't have a bicycle for sale at the moment and two of the three bikes in the basement I purchased new and I am still guilty of several hundred counts above just from my parts collection. If that is the standard you want us to live by better to drive a car.

Don't even want to think of how much I am guilty of and my partner is guilty of from the bikes we keep upstairs. I still have the 1959 Schwinn Typhoon my parents bought me for my seventh birthday and I could rot in prison a long time for that one.

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on March 31, 2013 at 8:49am

Completely forgot about that. Right next door to Chili's, there is also a Bravo! Cucina Italiana, if you are more in the mood for "Italian classics with a twist" in a "fun, family-friendly Roman ruin decor." Or Buffalo Wild Wings, for when you want to watch a game and Tommy Nevin's just isn't corporate enough ;)

h' 1.0 said:

There's a Chili's right in downtown Evanston. No need to schlep out to Lincolnwood.

Duppie 13.5185km said:

h' copied the municpal code of Chicago. You live in Evanston. It doesn't apply to you as long as you stay there.

Not sure why you get so worked up. Shouldn't you be having dinner at the Olive Garden now? ;)

John C. Wilson said:

This site had best take down it's Marketplace section forthwith. Everything there or that has been there is in violation of the above.

I don't have a bicycle for sale at the moment and two of the three bikes in the basement I purchased new and I am still guilty of several hundred counts above just from my parts collection. If that is the standard you want us to live by better to drive a car.

Don't even want to think of how much I am guilty of and my partner is guilty of from the bikes we keep upstairs. I still have the 1959 Schwinn Typhoon my parents bought me for my seventh birthday and I could rot in prison a long time for that one.

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Permalink Reply by David P. on March 31, 2013 at 12:27pm

I think that there are a number of people posting on this topic who could stand to get off their computers and go ride their bikes!

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on March 31, 2013 at 2:44pm

You obviously know very little about the stolen bike market...

Bikes are often held in storage and sold later to avoid the owners tracking them down.  I have seen a bike that had been stolen months before recovered at Swap-O-Rama.

While true they could have gotten the bikes in a legit manner you would be burying your head in the sand to not question the situation.

John C. Wilson said:

Thieves want to be rid of stolen property. ASAP. Five dollars. They don't hoard it. They certainly don't pay rent and advertise and clean bikes and invest in trucking inventory city to city.  The thesis being tested here is just ridiculous. If there is a roomful of stolen bikes just sitting there it is pathetically easy for the police to  crack the case and the perps are sitting there waiting to be arrested. It all comes down to the "suspects" are Mexican and lowerclass and don't behave like Anglos. It's the same frame of mind that got edited a bit at the top of the thread where someone accused Ron at NearlyNew of fencing. Ron has been right on that spot 15 years doing Chicago bikers right. And I don't go a month without hearing a tale about the spot on Broadway where they sell hot bikes. It comes down to nothing except Ron is black.

The guy didn't understand you. Sounds suspicious.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on March 31, 2013 at 2:52pm

Just an FYI for you morons in this thread.

This person is not just some dude selling bikes on the internet out of their garage, this is somebody, who knows very little about bikes, using a store front to sell used bikes at unusually low prices; you would have to be an idiot or incredibly naive to not find it suspicious.

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Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on March 31, 2013 at 4:12pm

Everyone is ok with accusing him online behind his back.  No one is interested in just talking to him?

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Permalink Reply by Jaik S. on March 31, 2013 at 5:16pm

Way back in the beginning of September 2012 when I had my bicycle had been recovered by Comrade Cycles after almost two years, it was explained to me that it was sitting in a warehouse for that time. I had a few stickers, a seat chain, and a lock bracket removed from it. Somewhere, there's a warehouse and they sell these bikes to people. That's all.

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Permalink Reply by John C. Wilson on April 1, 2013 at 5:16am

Everybody here knows everything including where I live and what I eat. What kind of people are you that you would go there. FYI, after a 33 year continuous residence in the City of Chicago I moved to Evanston in 2010, in part because my mother lives here now. My 91 year old mother. There are reasons a family member would want to be nearby for an aged parent. Is that good enough for you? Make fun of my mother as you make fun of everything else, go ahead, it says more about you than it does about me. And yesterday I had Easter brunch with my mother and then went for a nice long bike ride, so sorry to diasappoint h1's expectation of snappy replies.

I have recovered a handful of stolen bicycles in my time. My time is longer than yours. For that reason alone you should have a little respect. I know others who have recovered bikes. The common denominator in bicycle thieves, from personal observation, is that they are twelve years old. You can call out the drones if you want. The simple way to deal with a 12 year old bike thief is to offer him $20 for the bike.

Someone has one example of genuine organized bike theft. And grand suspicions about Shining Bikes. Let me know when you have something better than a Yelp on that place. The one example you've got they were total dumbshits (surprise) and the police nabbed them easy. The same police you say have no interest in property crimes.

I once recovered a nice classic Lejeune just laying in the alley. When I found the owner 3 years later he told me a little kid  - less than 12 for sure -  grabbed it out of the yard and rode off. I found it six blocks away. Could that bike have ended up at a swap? Sure. I would not deserve to be shot if I had done just that.

James BlackHeron writes simply and effectively. He writes what he knows. If you understand English you know what he said. He was completely on-topic. Attempts to demean him reflect solely on the authors.

Theft of higher end bikes happens constantly as inside jobs by people working in the industry. The recipients of that stolen property always consider themselves "connected" rather than fences. Most such clowns really never know that the bike is hot. And the bikes circulate a long time. They're good bikes and they last. When it ends up at a swap or a resale decades later you can freak out or you can say shit happens.

I'm out of here. With a short list of posters completely full of themselves. I'll talk to someone interested in bikes instead of someone who's only interested in their ego.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 1, 2013 at 5:55am

The one problem I have with Shining Bikes and Things is that when people have gone in to look at serial numbers on their stock they got chased out.  That is SHADY!

Any legitimate bike dealer, or even an honest buyer & seller would NEVER try and ever get in the way of a stolen bike being recovered and returned to its rightful owner.   

Whenever I sell a bike I tell the person I'm selling it to that to the best of my knowledge the bike is not stolen but that it was used when I came into possession of it and it's very hard to prove that a bike has NOT been stolen.  If someone can match up a serial with a victim then they can prove it has, but since so many bike owners refuse to keep records or pay attention to their own serial numbers many stolen bike reports don't have serial numbers to pass on with them to aid further investigations.

So I tell the person I'm selling it to that if they should ever run into problems with the bike they are buying I will give them 100% of their money back and be glad to hand over the bike to the rightful owner, I'll even give it another free tune-up if it has been a while/miles since my restoration and needs work again.  

I give everyone I deal with a complete write-up of their newly-restored used bike, along with a bill of sale.  Everything is on it:  Measurements, Brand, model, everything that is on it, along with a sheet that has the website of http://bikeregistry.com/ and tell them to register it as soon as they get home -I've made it easy for them with everything they need to fill in the form and it's FREE.

Never would I want to see a known stolen bike not be returned to its rightful owner.  While I do my best to check the various Stolen Bike Registries it is very possible that a stolen bike is not identifiable if the victim didn't know or report the serial.   But if a bike and a victim can be positively matched and I have the power to get it back to them I will.  That's just how I roll.

Apparently Shining Bikes & Things doesn't roll that way from the reports I have heard from folks who tried going in there and checking serials...

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Permalink Reply by Sarah D. on April 1, 2013 at 6:14am

I went into that store when I first noticed it to look at a bike I saw in the window, and after a couple of minutes and a few questions, plus looking at their "repair area," it was clear they didn't know a thing about bikes. That's enough to me to know they are shady. I hightailed it out of there and haven't been back. 

James BlackHeron said:

The one problem I have with Shining Bikes and Things is that when people have gone in to look at serial numbers on their stock they got chased out.  That is SHADY!

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 1, 2013 at 6:46am

I think you need to go back and read again what I have written spouted-off.

h' 1.0 said:

There have been several confirmed reports of victims recovering their stolen bikes there almost immediately after the theft.

When did you lose the ability to follow a link or to concern yourself with accuracy when you start spouting off?

James BlackHeron said:

The one problem I have with Shining Bikes and Things is that when people have gone in to look at serial numbers on their stock they got chased out.  That is SHADY!

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 1, 2013 at 7:31am

Because I don't have PROOF of this, and didn't want to pass on unsubstantiated rumors of criminal wrong-doing against a licensed business in the city, and I didn't know for sure (web search or not) I didn't want to DELVE into the realm of slander. I may "spout off" at times online but I"m pretty careful about not opening myself up to possible civil or criminal prosecution.

That's why

Perhaps I should have phrased it "One thing," rather than "THE one thing."

If you have anything more to add to these accusations that go beyond simple rumors or anecdotal evidence, I'd love for you to share them with the group.

h' 1.0 said:

What you have written:

The one problem I have with Shining Bikes and Things is that when people have gone in to look at serial numbers on their stock they got chased out.  That is SHADY!

How could you not know that there was a recent rash of victims finding their stolen bikes there?

Do you only post to chainlink and not read it? Did you not follow the Yelp link above?

Or are you saying that you don't have a problem with this?

James BlackHeron said:

I think you need to go back and read again what I have written spouted-off.

h' 1.0 said:

There have been several confirmed reports of victims recovering their stolen bikes there almost immediately after the theft.

When did you lose the ability to follow a link or to concern yourself with accuracy when you start spouting off?

James BlackHeron said:

The one problem I have with Shining Bikes and Things is that when people have gone in to look at serial numbers on their stock they got chased out.  That is SHADY!

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