Bike Stolen... In emergency recovery mode

 

Specialized Allez E5.  Stolen May 23, 2021

My wonderful green 2021 Specialized Allez E5 Elite, which I only rode for 9 months, was stolen from bike rack at the back of Palo Alto Medical Clinic.   Yes, it was locked to the rack... but that doesn't seem to count for much these days.

Bicycle theft is an epidemic here in Palo Alto.

so... here is a brief rundown of the other bicycles that I've had stolen here in the past 5 years or so:

2015 Giant Defy II .   Stolen from Caltrain bike car Aug. 2020.

Giant Defy 2012 - Stolen from bike rack in front of Palo Alto City Hall, Jan 2015.

Recovery

Still planning to fly to Seattle this Sunday, May 30 with new bicycle in big Amtrak box.  

2021 Specialized Diverge E5

On Sunday, about 4 hours after the bike was stolen, I purchased the new bike above.  Luckily, the shop that had the bike also had a wheel with stronger spokes.  One of my requirements... since I have always broken spokes when riding on a bike with "stock" wheels.

I then spent the next few days ordering, or buying locally, the rest of the stuff I need to properly equip the bike for this kind of trip:

Serfas stem bag	Magnetic closing stem bag for my phone.
Rear Rack for panniers
Softer seat	Stock seats are horrible.  They will neuter you.
Topeak Road Morph Pump	Lightweight pump with foot holder that can allegedly go to 160psi
Cloth rim tape	Stock wheels have plastic rim tape that will produce flats after a couple thousand miles.
Schwalbe Marathon tires	World's toughest tires.  Have done x-country with this tire with 0 flats
Sigma BC5.16	Bike computer
Lock	Cable lock .   Not the most theft-proof, but not like lugging around lead weights
Rear light
Rear light mounting hardware	Incredibly, most rear lights don't come with rear rack mounting hardware.

Everything is in house now except for the Stem bag, which should arrive on Sunday.

Transporting the bike

Getting myself to Seattle there is easy.   Getting the bike there is another matter.  My preferred method of transporting the bike is Amtrak Package Express service... but Amtrak's website says:

"Amtrak Express shipping is suspended until further notice."

In normal times, you bike into your nearest Amtrak station that has this service (any station that handles checked baggage... here it's Diridon in San Jose).  Pay them about $85, take off the pedals, turn the handlebars 90° and drop them down (4 allen bolts)... and wheel the bike into the box.  Seal it up and they will send it to any Amtrak station that handles checked baggage in the country. 

Other options I considered:

1. Checked Luggage in smallish bike box: 
   This requires paying a bike shop to box the bike up in a box that was used to ship bikes from the manufacturer to the shop.   The Off Ramp in Santa Clara charges $65 to do this and it takes them overnight.  Alaska Air only charges $30 to handle checked baggage and treats bicycles packed this way as standard checked baggage. 
   The downside of this method is that it needs significant re-assembly on the other side, and that carries some risk that I might not have sufficient tools or skills to  do that at my hotel.  No bike shops in the area are open on Memorial Day weekend.   The other downside is I would need to take a shuttle that can fit the bike to get to my hotel in Redmond.  That costs an additional $45.
2. Buy myself a ticket on Amtrak to Seattle and take the bike with me as checked baggage.  Then get off the train and let the bike proceed to Seattle... meet the train at Seattle King St. station, unpack the bike and ride off into the sunset.   This method costs $91 for the ticket, and another $35 for the bike and box.  Carries some risk that if they discover you're no longer on the train they might throw the bike off the luggage car in Sacramento or some other intermediate city... although this is unlikely.  The other downside is that this train doesn't get to Seattle until 9PM... which would add 20 miles and 1000 ft vertical to Monday's ride as I would depart from Seattle instead of Redmond.  Also, Amtrak is notoriously late.. so it might not get in until midnight.
3. Buy a box from Amtrak and check bike as oversized luggage.  This is the option I chose.  
   Alaska air will accept oversized luggage up to 115 linear inches (L+W+D).  The Amtrak box measures 41x70x9 = 120 linear inches.  If I take off the front wheel, I can then carve about 8" off the length of the box, and therefore meet the 115 limit.  Boxcutter and tape.  Wish me luck!

Last challenge... box doesn't fit in the Prius.  To get the empty box home, I had to cram it into the back of the prius, and leave the hatchback door open.  and that was for a flattened box.  My friend, Sandy,  graciously offered to drive me to the airport in his van on Sunday morning after I explained my predicament with tearful eyes and trembling lip.. 

New bike:  Specialized Diverge E5.  Road Ready