Stolen Colnago?? Weird response from eBay seller

Might not have been nicked...could just have run away from an abusive owner who put Japanese, 2nd tier, electric gears on an Italian frame....

I bought a top end hybrid for the missus some years ago, it was in london (80 mile round trip), price was ridiculously cheap and advertised on gumtree or Friday-ad.

had the kids number (he was about 17/18) and he wanted me to meet near his mums flat where he lived.

Beforehand I rang local plod to ask if anyone had had a bike matching the description stolen. it would have stood out as it had XT groupset, Spesh s-Works carbon bars, carbon post, carbon forks, carbon seat stays, certainly as a ladies specific bike there were very few in the country and was a newish model plus the bike was in mint condition. No, was the answer, which for me was good enough.

he'd said he'd bought it from the market to get around on but as it was a ladies he was a bit embaressed, he didn't know much about the bike or the spec. i even haggled him down another tenner cos of the Northern blood and £140 later I'm in possesion of a top of the range bike that the missus could ride 40 miles on with ease.

I've done ebay for 16 years, there are some that are just crap at grammar, crap at describing stuff and some that really just don't like answering questions. You can conversely get all the patter, great details, perfect English and it turns out to be a wrong 'un.

Earlier this year I was sold fake carbon wheels purporting to be Vision 50mm tubs with Bitex hubs and CX-Ray spokes, bought in the US for a lower end race but not used. The barcodes were all there and the seller wasn't too far away but postage was reasonable enough so had them posted. It wasn't until i got them that the alarm bells started sounding.

Drill holes for the valve were horrendous, spokes were no name chinese jobs and the braking surfaces looked fag paper thin and didn't look quite right for tubulars that were supposed to have a special braking surface on them.

I contacted Vision whom put me in touch with the European rep of the company that actually manufactures them. I showed him the bar codes and other bits and he told me they were deffo fakes. I contacted ebay and the seller and basically said i'd call the police. Still took three weeks to get my money back with the seller still saying they weren't fakes.

ATEOTD, it is a buyers market and sometimes even if it's something you really want, if you're not comfortable just walk away, something else will come up.

I love the inferences here suggesting that those whose grasp of the finer points of the English language may not be quite at degree level can't either own or sell on Colnago's.

Do you need a Ph.D to own a Storck?

I'm sure there are many of us who have met for example, plumbers who earn huge amounts of cash and could afford any bike they like... If they could only spell it proper, like.

Obviously not a biker crosss chaining like that

Oh, just checked the photos - ask him about the bike computer. (out-front handle bar mount is installed).

Not to insult your intelligence, we can all be seduced by something we want too badly, but isn't this obvious? Just reading the first line of text would make me run, not walk, away with the extremely poor language. 

If you wish to proceed ask him questions like:

 - Why do you want to sell it?

 - What does riding the bike feel like?

 - What kind of riding do you do?

- How long have you been riding?

 - Do you have the original receipt?

- Ask him some very technical questions about the bike that he cannot just google to find out. 

I only buy stuff on the internet from sellers with minimum 99% approval ratings. 

I wouldn't provide a serial number to anyone except the winning bidder after payment had been received - thieves can use a 'clean' number for a stolen bike. 

Its a genuine Colnago, ask him for a pic of the serial number (if he can find it)

Also ask him if the di2 charger is included and has the firmware been updated to the latest version, and can he supply a pic

Deffo a 52s frame, two other things make it look suspect and thats the pedals and garmin mount

Most people would remove these for their next bike

Although i can see a pair spd's in the back ground, so he prob does ride

I'm skeptical.

Here's my no-nos:

1. Seller with so short an Ebay record selling something really expensive.

2. Seller doesn't know anything about the item.

3. Seller has a record of selling random items.

4. Seller is rude. That might just be because he's thick.

5. Seller hasn't bothered to clean the item: it's grubby.

That said, the price is about right for a used C59 that's a bit uncared for, which the white ones often look.

The frame looks about the same proportions as my EPS, which is 52 sloping, equivalent to 56 in normal bikes. So I think the advert is right, 56cm top tube = 52s. The fact that he doesn't know it's 52s shows he knows nothing about Colnagos. It has a proper Colnago frame number on the inside of the lh rear dropout.

Ask if you can pay cash on collection - that way you can have a good look yourself before you pay up. If he says no, walk away.

Or phone him up: his name's Darren O'Rourke and here's his phone number:

56inch, wow that's a massive seat tube. 

Its not 56cm either, because that's a sloping geo frame. 56 would equal a 60cm traditional, which has a much longer head tube than that

Looks to me like it has been made up from stolen parts.  I mean, who puts Shimano on a Colnago?

Seller doesn't seem to have much track record on ebay.

So many sleuths and so much forensic examination going on here. You've all missed the biggest clue though - previous owner's name is on the top tube. Ernesto something... 

Shouldn't be too far from solving the mystery now.

Can I have you all in the library after dinner please.

Not sure there's anything wrong with the "C" - the serif is supposed to be at a slight angle, see other decals elsewhere, and I think the lighting and tube profiles have done the rest.

The bottle cage on the downtube could account for the lack of reflection on the "COL".

Still looks dodgy to me, though.

There's something weird about those photos too - it's almost like the frame is CGI. Or taken in a showroom. Have a look at them in close-up. The 'C' definitely isn't right.

I've sold a couple of bikes recently, and one of the questions I'm invariably asked is whether they would fit someone of a certain height. At that level, that's not a question you want to be asked though.

That 'I'm selling this bike as I prefer this other bike' is a tell-tale sign for me. Often used on Gumtree.

Any way we can check if it's nicked?

he must have a penchant for Watt bikes as apprently he sold a 2016 model in the last 6 months.

Hmm - listed as 56 inch and D12 in the title, rather than Di2, I'd be very wary.

English obvously not first language, but I'd want to see receipts before I handed over any cash.

Why would you sell a road bike in favour of a Watt bike, anyway - especially in the middle of summer!?

"Its got the Di2 Shimano which i would recommend to anyone to have this piece of kit on there road bike."

This way of describing the spec would make me extremely wary.

What did you ask him?

It's terrible, but I become a total grammar/spelling snob when I read FS adverts, I would be running a mile just because of how it's written.

Anyone who knows bikes wouldn't try to 'sell' the bike or the kit, they would just list the spec and let the spec sell itself.