The story of this TT bike – and another, road, bike – offers a fascinating insight in what is happening to expensive bikes being stolen in Ireland. They were nicked in a home invasion; but that’s only the start of this tale.
What Irish burglars did with two expensive bikes they stole
When his road and TT bikes were stolen from his Dublin home just over a week ago, Peter Murtagh was gutted.
The Ironman triathlete was bathing his young children last Saturday week.
His wife was also home, their cars were parked outside and the lights and TV were all on.
Yet a three-man gang was driving a van up to the back of the house in Castleknock for a brazen robbery in the middle of the day.
One of the men appeared to remain in the vehicle as driver. The other two, armed with crowbars, set about breaking into the house.
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They attempted to force the conservatory doors off the hinges and smashed the glass of that door.
Two other windows were smashed; one taken off its hinges and allowing the intruders access to the family home.
They were interested in just one thing, triathlete Murtagh’s bikes. He had a Cervelo P3 TT and Planet X Pro Carbon Road Bike in the house.
A neighbour saw the men outside but assumed they were friends of the family. She became concerned when they pulled their hoods up on realising she had seen them.
Moments later when one of the intruders was handing the two bikes over the back wall, the neighbour realised what was happening.
Peter Murtagh came down from upstairs. Seeing the damage and one of his bikes gone, he ran outside in a panic.
A relieved man getting his stolen bikes back
The intruders' van was still there but it was pulling away with its back doors open.
Murtagh put his training to good use and ran after the vehicle. Ultimately, though, he was helpless as the van drove off with the men and bikes inside.
But he did manage to get the registration number. He would pass that to the Garda and also posted it on Facebook in a post that went viral.
He appealed for information on the social media platform and included the van reg. He added photos of the TT bike along with a full description of what had happened.
Luckily, but only after a sickening few days, he got his bikes back.
They had been serviced, with new cables put in and the bar tape expertly replaced.
Even the brake blocks had been changed. Both bikes had also been expertly cleaned.
Furthermore, they had been dismantled, bubble wrapped and some of the small parts – all expertly cleaned – placed into tubes.
Murtagh is convinced the men who stole his bikes identified him as a target by surfing Strava. His settings were public and his rides began and ended at his home.
Even the make of his two bikes were on his account. And given how perfectly his bikes were cleaned, serviced, dismantled and packed; he is convinced somebody in the bike game was working hand in glove with the intruders.
After posting the registration of the intruders’ van online he got some tip offs.
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While the address the van was registered to was bogus, others who contacted Murtagh via Facebook spotted the vehicle and told him where it was.
A friend of his checked out the address – in south Dublin - and confirmed the van was there. Murtagh then rang the gardai and they took over.
They went to the address, recovered the bikes and took the van away. And last Wednesday evening the gardai called the 39-year-old father of two and reunited him with his bikes.
Four days had passed since the robbery. And those who stole the bike had gotten busy.
They readied the bike for transport, Murtagh believes abroad. And in order to sell their swag for the maximum price they improved the bikes.
“It was done in a professional way,” Murtagh told stickybottle.
“I could have been washing the bikes for a week and I wouldn’t have been cleaned that well.
“In my view, they handed the bikes over pretty much instantly to a third party. And I really suspect that person was a professional bike mechanic.
“Both bikes were professionally clean; they were perfect, not just a normal wash,” he said.
“It was like the way a second hand car would look like a new car after a valet.
“I wouldn’t be able to do the bar tap the way it had been done. The job they did would have added a couple of hundred Euro to the resale value of the road bike, which I commute on.
“They had taken the TT bike apart; everything was dismantled, even the skewers taken out.
"And again, even the wheels had been given that expert valet cleaning; they were like brand new.
“The skewers were even put into tubes and bubble wrapped. It was all cleaned, taken apart, bubble wrapped and ready for transport.
“These people are obviously organised and involved in shipping bikes out of the country.”
Murtagh believes those behind the robbery likely knew if they were caught they would be treated by the legal system as if they were involved in low level crime.
Despite stealing expensive bikes worth thousands, the risk of being caught and punished harshly was remote.
Murtagh also believes his settings on Strava had made him a target.
He said after he had put the appeal out on Facebook when the bikes were stolen, somebody who had seen it checked him out on Strava.
They contacted Murtagh and told him they could see exactly where he lived because his settings were ‘public’ rather than ‘private’.
“I told that to the guards and they were saying ‘we need to get this out there’,” he said.
“There seems to be knowledge of this generally in the UK; a lot of awareness about the need to keep the settings private.
“The guy who contacted me said ‘I put your name into Strava and I can see your house by the map’.
“He could also see where and when I rode. And in some places you can also see what bike people are doing their rides on.
“I think if (gangs stealing bikes) are working with people in the bike trade, it’s easy for them to check Strava; to know about it and how to use it.”
Murtagh added while he had done a lot of cycling he knew very little about Strava.
And while lots of committed cyclists would be aware of the need to switch their account from the default public setting to private, lots of other riders wouldn’t.
He also felt his experience, and the clear involvement of somebody with expert bike know-how in handling his stolen bike, proved the use of Strava to identify victims for targeting bike robberies was a reality rather than the stuff of urban legend.
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