Bikes Outside: Stolen

Recently, a friend asked me if I could take a look at an old bike she had. It had been sitting neglected for a long time before she got it and had a rusty chain. A couple of days later, I was walking to Cinestudio and spotted this old Univega locked to a tree on the Trinity College campus. I like old Univegas, even the lower-end models, and this one was prime Bikes Outside material for sure. It had an adorably small 40-something centimeter frame-- look at how the top tube and down tube share a single lug with the head tube- so precious! As I snapped a few pictures of the boom-era ten speed, I figured there was a pretty good chance this was my friend's bike and made a mental note to ask her about it the next time I saw her.


The next time I saw her happened to be this past Thursday afternoon. She confirmed that 1) This was indeed her bike and 2) It had been stolen sometime that very morning. Aw, crap!!!

Thus begins two simultaneous searches: the pragmatic quest for a smallish road bike to replace the pinched bike vies with the odds-challenging quest to somehow recover the absent 'Vega. Hopefully it didn't go to a scrapyard. Sadly, many serviceable discarded and stolen bikes meet this fate, where they fetch pennies on a good day and are quickly destroyed by equipment used to indiscriminately shove and stack the piles of metal. On the chance that it hasn't met such an ugly fate, I'd appreciate you keeping an eye out for an old gray Univega with steel 27" rims and dubious provenance. Share leads in the comments or email my screen name (at sign) blert.net. It's a long shot, but it would be great to find this bike.

Thanks.