My olest son– whom many of you know in the LONDON CONNECTION OFFICES here in the States– recently was in London working with ourLondon team, looking at new flats, and riding his “miracle” IBIS bicycle all over London.  Well, this is an amazing story which I thought my readers would enjoy.  Lots of lessons here to be learned.

Thomas had arranged a dinner meeting in Islington to discuss new employees for the company.  Thomas rode his IBIS bike to the restaurant and dutifully locked the bike with a lock –perfectly suitable for the small western town where he lives–never realizing that he was now in one of the largest cosmopolitan centers in the world, and he needed a lock suitable to the new setting.

After dinner, he left the restaurant only to find that his bike had been stolen.  He called me on the phone and said:  I HAVE JUST HAD THE MOST HORRIBLE DAY OF MY LIFE.  I thought for sure he was in a hospital with a crushed skull and missing one leg.  Well, it turned out that some thug had made off with his IBIS bike.  He contacted his good friend SCOT NICOL owner of IBIS CYCLES in California.  And, this is where the story gets good.

This bike was unique.  The serial number was unique–a pre-production model that was never built except for Thomas.  The bike was copper metalic, and looked like something Zsa Zsa Gabor or Liberace would have ridden.  Needless to say, anyone into cycling would have known what this IBIS carbon fiber bike was all about.

The front fork was a pre-production NINER CARBON FRONT FORK in “solid gold” color.  The serial number of the fork was also unique as this was the only bike with such a serial number.  The racing tires were RACING RALPH TIRES.

Scot Nicol of IBIS CYCLES in California immediately contacted his distributor in London, 2PURE .  The London company immediately went to work in an all-out effort to locate this unique bike worth 4,764 UK pounds.  It had been decided that the individual who stole the bike knew what this bike was and knew that he could get more for the bike if it was sold in parts.  Safer, probably.  SURE ENOUGH, the “solid gold” NINER CARBON FORKS showed up on Ebay.  IBIS CYCLES was contacted immediately.

The strategy was established that they would bid on the forks to whatever level was required to buy the bike.  When the FORK was won on Ebay, the contact person and his London post code would appear.  Perfect!  That is exactly what happened.  Thomas bid on his own FORKS and won the bid and got the details of the person who had stolen his bike.  He lived only two streets away from where the bike was taken.  HIS NAME WAS DEAN SETTLE, and his post code in Islington was accurate:   London N7 8TN.

What happened next?  The police were contacted and then the crime bureau.  All the papers were sent with photos of serial verifications.  MR. DEAN SETTLE was found, arrested, and jailed.  I am happy to report that that MR. DEAN SETTLE’s bike business on Ebay is no more. His ebay name was “fixedattempt”–So you all have it now, and be careful!

And what about the bike?  The GOLD fork has been recovered, and IBIS CYCLES and their representatives in London are hot on the trail of this unique bicycle.  This carbon fiber IBIS  bike won’t be difficult to track down:  unique color, unique serial number, and IBIS clearly evident on the frame.  The PUNK, Mr. Dean Settle, will be the key to finding it.

We later learned that he had numerous items on EBAY, so anyone dealing with bicycles and parts on Ebay, be careful.  If you run into someone in London riding a copper metalic IBIS bike, call the police in London or IBIS CYCLES in California.  They are waiting for your calls.

We had 786,000 reads of this blog during the month of May.  I don’t know of a better bunch of friends than my readers.  I enjoy you all.  The IBIS BIKE story is with you all now.  Ear to the rail!

What a great tale.  Thanks.

Tom       TmooreSr@me.com         Telephone:  801.791.9918

http://www.londonconnection.com

Wow!