Sadly enough, my bike is stolen in Verona / Italy in Aug. Here is a warning for anybody travelling to Italy with his/her bike, please do insure your bike. there are even monthly policies you can choose. I’ve heard a lot of bike theft stories in Italy from my friends and neighbours, and of course I thought these people are not smart enough to secure their bikes and now experiencing this. My bike was locked on a bike trailer behind my car and parked in crowded city center of Verona, under a CCTV camera. 30 mins after parking our car, the bike was gone. Response of police etc was a joke, seriously I am really tired of being an “average” guy, paying all the taxes and contributions to the social systems and getting nothing out of it. I also believe bike manufacturers should be able to do some more for avoiding theft, unique coding of all parts and products, or whatever it can be. When an expensive bike is stolen, the victim is very high likely to buy another bike. Bike industry is somehow benefiting the situation actually. I know in France it is becoming mandatory to have a specific frame number for every bike now. But anyway, all these topics require another thread.
I was wondering if anybody has real life experience on De Rosa bikes? I saw some people riding them on couple of local gran fondo races and looked very nice. they have somehow fair delivery dates, good components, very nice design and colours but i have no idea on frame quality, after sales support etc. I was considering to buy directly from their website. I found some good reviews here and there but i really do not trust anything on youtube or cycling magazines anymore but only the real life experiences of users. Below is a SK Pininfarina 22, coming with Campagnolo Super Record EPS set up which i have never used before.
I rode an Idol a number of years ago and would rate it up with other top bikes. I would have no reservations riding another De Rosa. My frame was one of these…
Sorry to hear about the theft. That sucks.
Under the bottom bracket in every bike I’ve owned is a serial number that’s printed into the metal or carbon.
For more on tracking see GPllama’s videos on using Apple air tags
Thanks. Sad part is, on that day, I had 2 free airtags, but sometimes you turn to be flat-footed. Still I am not sure if police would follow it, as said car was parked under city’s security cameras and still they were not really engaged to chase anything. If by chance, these thieves are committed to more serious crimes and they are caught because of this and by chance your bike found there, you may have a chance to see your bike again.
The code I was mentioning is not the manufacturer’s frame number but a unique code which is mandatory to have on every bike. Today if you steal a bike, you can remove the frame code as you are not gonna claim anything from the warranty, nobody will ask your bike’s frame number. There must also be other measures to force manufacturers finding solutions. Number of stolen bikes are crazy. 2017-2021 reported number of bike thefts are over 160.000 only in London. If you consider 500 EUR average value (which cannot buy you even a decathlon bike), this is 80 million Euros. A more dramatic number says, total number of stolen bikes in E.U. is 3.000.000 in a year. Who is benefiting this? First of course thieves, as in general this is considered as a minor crime, user is guilty. Police does not even dare to chase these cases. Second biggest party profiting from this is bike manufacturers. I dont have statistics but there is a very high chance that user will replace his/her stolen bike in a year.
