Loaner Bikes

I'm going to price that frame/fork/brake/bottom bracket/headset/stem/bars, all of which (except the bars) were mine, at £100. Does that sound reasonable?

Io, can you come up with a price for the the wheels and saddle?

I will collect this money.

I hope this is all a big mistake, incredibly fucked behaviour otherwise...

I fail to see how it could be a mistake, given that he told Io today that he still has the bike, which he clearly doesn't. If he thinks he's going to try to fool us by subbing one Archie for another, this is only going to piss me off more for assuming I'm a fool.

Whack

Shit. I'm shocked. When I saw him today he could have pretended not to see me. He stopped and wanted me to stop. He was friendly and talked about the bike and the wheels. I know I am soft with people but now I feel like an idiot.

But I don't understand why do this? (he is still in the bike circles. And the bike circle is tiny. We run into each other by chance today. We gonna definitely ran into each other again).

Are you guys sure?
He even offered the info that he works with Bill (which I already knew that) and that why Bill didn't mention anything about the bike etc. it makes no sense.

Io, you've seen the photo and the email from the twitter guy. It happened. I don't care whether he sold it or lost it or what. He is going to pay for it.

Yeah. I agree. I am just totally shocked. I wish he could have said

This is the list of people who contributed to the bike:

Paul K: brake
Kevin: brake lever and cable
Io: Chain/wheels/tyres/tubes/grips
Chukker: all the rest

Let's put a value on these:

Paul K: brake -- £10
Kevin: brake lever and cable -- £5
Io: Chain/wheels/tyres/tubes/grips -- ??
Chukker: all the rest -- £100

Total: £115

Having bill as your controller is punishment enough... Especially if bill thinks this is out of order.

Let's put a value on these:

Paul K: brake -- £10
Kevin: brake lever and cable -- £5
Io: Chain/wheels/tyres/tubes/grips -- £45
Chukker: all the rest -- £100

Total: £160

I stayed with Joe at last year's London open. Can't remember exactly where he lives but might be able to dig out an old email with an address if that helps. Paddy also stayed with us so he might have an idea as well...

Three things.

1) We've got a price for the bike: £160. I would like to begin by sending him an email with a bill and see how he responds. Can I put Io, Beagle and Kev in the cc line, just for some added weight?

2) Before I send the email, I'd like to find out more info about the the Iain/Maddie Archie that he apparently has. Do we have any more info on that?

3) The twitter guy, Ben, wants to keep the frame, but is being pretty cool about it. He had it sanded and painted, which is fair enough. However, this bike is a prototype polo frame commissioned by Karl Wilkinson (Archie's son) and given to me as a sponsorship deal. This makes me think we should keep the bike in the LPC. Any thoughts on how I should respond to Ben? Should we ask for the frame back and add Ben's costs to Joe's bill (and subtract the frame cost from the bill)?

Man, this fucking stinks... Here's hoping for a positive outcome...

Yeah get that frame back and let joe pay ben for the work donde in the frame

OK some thoughts / opinions on this,

1. We shouldnt take the frame back from the Twitter guy. He's entirely innocent - unless there's some other narrative out there that can explain all this. He's positively reclaimed something that was dumped, put some time, effort, and money into it, and was excited about putting together a new bike for himself. I feel it would be a bit unfair on him, he's volunteered information to us and it's not his fault that he's worked on a frame that wasnt supposed to be in that skip. Yes the frame is lost to LPC but we can't win them all, one of our "community" seems to have disregarded the time and effort that we put into making this bike available to him and others.

2. I'd call Johannes first before sending an email. An email is too easy to ignore - if you have his number, dial him up and ask him about the bike. I wouldnt even mention anything about the frame being found, initially - just let him speak and see what he has to say. It's possible he's innocent too, but I can't really think of a scenario where the frame ends up dumped without his knowledge, he seems like he has lied about it to Ioanna when he met her face to face. But lets give the guy a chance to make his case to us before we go any further.

3. Lets leave the old Bill out of this - it's nothing to do with him, even though they work together. Unless of course he wants to be involved.

4. If the frame has been dumped, I'm not particularly shocked or surprised... disappointed yes, but not surprised. I had numerous people telling me that "Oh Angus is a really nice guy", when my repeated attempts to contact the dickhead to get Wicksie's loaner back were ignored, which eventually necessitated going around to his squat and hammering on the door to wrestle it back. Johannes had already burnt his bridges somewhat, right? So he wasnt playing anymore after that, and probably thought nobody would ever come looking for that bike again, and didnt particularly care about contacting someone in LPC to give it back, if at the time he needed to make space he probably just dumped it.

I'd like to see him pay some money back for it, or get a replacement loaner with a suitably decent frame, but if he tells us to fuck off I am unsure about how we can make progress on it.

^ IMHO, just saying, etc. Happy to be countered.

Jo knew that the frame was chukker's; he knew it was a prototype; he knew it was built for LPC. Chukker made it clear when he handed me the frame to put together and I made it clear to Jo when he picked it up. "This is chukker's frame, prototype and it is for the LPC". He knew exactly what the deal was and this is also shown from his own posts on the thread that he was aware of the deal. I don't understand why bin it? He could simply ask for someone to pick it up. (Hence my surprise!). Binning it or selling it is no different- he knew this bike was not his to keep so he had no right to bin it/sell it etc. If someone else stole it from him, why didn't he say something to me when I saw him or to LPC?

As for what to do now... Could LHBPA offer the twitter guy some cash for his work on the frame and for the frame to be returned to LHBPA? He sounded reasonable and with this he gets some cash to find a fixie and the frame is returned?

Just my thoughts - but not really opinions for or against anything. Just my thoughts trying to process this really !

If Jo gives the 160. I'm happy for the money of my parts to be put in LHBPA. Not sure if I believe in loaner bikes anymore. Seems people are taking the piss and show no appreciation. This loaner bike gave Jo 1 year of polo and it also took him to work and back. I am disappointed and surprised and I am sorry for all this as this was an important frame for chukker :(

I doubt LHBPA will cover. Shouldn't really be LHBPA remit to cover for poor decision making of its members. (Is Joe even a paid member?)

If we want to get the frame back to Chukker we need to stump up the cash for it or offer the guy a replacement. Anyone got a frame lying around they can donate?

I may have a Peugeot old frame. I need to check with my building manager if it is in the store room. It may not be though as I told him it was ok for him to take away...
[checked with him today - Peugeot frame is no longer here...sorry]

This isnt really anything to do with the Association.

Yes. You are right. It was a thought because the guy worked on it and the bike was meant to be a loaner. But yes. You are totally right. I take it back..

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Question: If my bike was stolen, then dumped, and then picked up by Twitter guy, then who's bike is it? I think it's still mine, even if he sands and paints it. He did say to me: "Seems strange someone would dump a semi complete bike in a skip?? (But who am I to complain)".

So maybe he should not have been so quick to sand and paint it? I'm tending toward asking for it back. And then I'll try to get money from dickface to pay for Twitter guy's costs.

@kev -- This is a public thread, and my guess is that dickface has seen it already. We know that someone else has the bike. That is a fact. So I still think we should present dickface with a bill and then see his response, and go from there.

Any other thoughts on this?

And, yes, Old Bill Bungalow has nothing to do with this and should be left out of it.

MAKE the twitter guy play polo on it, then its still in the polo community, problem solved.

Good plan.