Anyone missing a bike?

SSmtbr

Well-Known Member
This afternoon I was returning some of our campus rental bikes to a storage rack at Montclair State and noticed a shoddy looking 29er that was poorly rattled canned black as I could still see some of the stock red paint and emblems/decals underneath. It was locked up, but poorly. Upon further inspection, it appears to be a 2013 or so Giant XTC Composite 3 (https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/xtc-composite-29er-3-2013).

I personally don't know many people who would willingly rattle can a carbon bike, and don't know of a sane owner who would paint it so poorly. There's dried paint all over the fork stanchions, uneven paint runs all over the frame, and the underneath is hardly touched - the Giant logo is perfectly visible, including the F/N sticker. There's no headset top cap with a ton of steerer tube exposed so the headset spacers are missing and the saddle has been changed to one of those cheap spring-gel seats, and there's battery powered led strips zip-tied all over the frame. The bike is basically abandoned or not maintained at all since the rear tire is flat and chain is coated in rust. So you can imagine seeing a carbon 29er like this raises some serious red flags.

I've checked all my databases and keywords for missing Giant XTC hardtail bikes and frame/serial number and none pop up. I may talk to one of my contacts at the local PD next week if I don't hear anything and see if they know from their end. It could be a student who just doesn't know how to maintain or care for a bike, especially a $2k carbon hardtail (more money than sense??) and I'm paranoid.

Before I pursue this further, does anyone know of anybody missing a Giant XTC hardtail from 2013? I have photos of the bike and frame/serial number if you want to PM me as I don't want to post pictures publicly accusing someone of theft in case it's someone's actual legally obtained bike (Although my gut feeling is that it's stolen and quickly rattle canned to disguise it from a quick glance).

Thanks!
 
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Karate Monkey

Well-Known Member
I would start by calling the local Giant dealers with the serial, and explain what you just said to us. They can use that information to contact the owner, assuming 1) the shop is in business, and 2) the previous owner's contact info didn't change.

I only say this, because a relatively small portion of mountain bikers in the state are on this (or, I would suspect, any) board.
 
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