Police in California have recovered two irreplaceable bikes stolen in a burglary at Specialized’s headquarters in California last weekend – one the S-Works that Michal Kwiatkowski rode to win the world championship in Ponferrada last September, the other a limited edition McLaren Tarmac, numbered 001, belonging to the company’s founder, Mike Sinyard.
Staff discovered the theft on Monday when they arrived for work to find the front door smashed, and had identified a getaway vehicle caught on CCTV when they received a tip-off that two bikes were being offered for a quick sale in the town of Morgan Hill, where Specialized is based.
According to KTVU news, an officer phoned would-be vendor Kannadi Ridenour and after obtaining details of the bikes – each worth $20,000, but for sale at $1,000 apiece, with the alleged thieves apparently unaware of their value – arranged to meet her at a local shopping mall.
She took the officer to the nearby home of Ryan Balestrini to complete the deal – but instead the pair found themselves in custody and are now facing charges as a result of the theft.
“These are probably two of the most easily identifiable bikes,” said Katie Sue Gruener of Specialized.
“I don’t think they had any idea when they took them exactly what they had gotten, but they got some pretty amazing products, sadly for us – but in the end we got them back and thank you to the police for doing that,” she added.




















14 thoughts on “Police recover Kwiatkowski’s world champs winning bike – which thieves were selling for $1,000”
Specialized just can’t stop
Specialized just can’t stop picking on small businesses can they 👿
Specialized just can’t stop
Specialized just can’t stop picking on small businesses can they 👿
They tried to sell the bikes
They tried to sell the bikes to a Specialized dealer. Doh. Don’t do meth, kids
Huw Watkins wrote:They tried
Where did it say they tried to sell them to a dealer?
Evoermine wrote:Huw Watkins
Here (+ the meth possession charges)
http://www.morganhilltimes.com/news/updated-specialized-founder-s-bicycle-stolen-recovered/article_487f9314-ad98-11e4-a988-e7d93413d987.html
They tried to sell the bikes
They tried to sell the bikes to a Specialized dealer. Doh. Don’t do meth, kids
Its not a totally
Its not a totally unreasonable assumption, they certainly didnt nick them because they had overwhelming bike love.
This is great policing. Get
This is great policing. Get on with it. Make the arrest.
“Kannadi Ridenour” Is that
“Kannadi Ridenour” Is that name for real? “Can ‘ardly ride an hour”
I don’t understand how
I don’t understand how Kwiatkowski’s S-Works can carry a value of $20,000? What’s it made from, gold?! I could build an identical one for a fraction of the cost!
Iamnot Wiggins wrote:I don’t
It’s the same with all sporting equipment/apparel. Win something big/well known with it and the value increases.
Its a sad indicaton of the times but success means you can charge more for things to the right buyer.
Football shirts are a good example. Only cost 50p to manufacture in a far east sweat shop, retail for €90. Win a world cup, sign it and you just trippled/ quadrupled the value of it.
Iamnot Wiggins wrote:I don’t
And once again, we have to introduce to the forum Module 1 of Basic Economics. Supply / Demand.
The bike isn’t much, just any top end bike but once it’s got some history and heritage behind it, it becomes a unique example and it’s worth what someone will pay for it which might be 10x it’s material value.
A genuine World Championship jersey is peanuts in terms of actual cost of material & manufacture. But it’s value is priceless cos you can’t buy them, you can only win them.
Because it was the one he won
Because it was the one he won the world champs on? gives it a certain unique characteristic so higher value?
I think my Specialized bikes
I think my Specialized bikes are worth the money I paid for them. I have 3.
To be honest they are prices competitively with their peers. Should they all drop their prices? Yes. But the top-end one… what a ride. Hills (up and down) are incredible.
Not sure why people pick on Specialized. The one company that seems to be above market rates is Pinarello. :/