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news
BIKE FUN HGV robbery (Image supplied)Great Chain Robbery: Shimano components for 10,000 bikes stolen from HGV by criminals using sleeping gas
BIKE FUN International (BFI), the largest Czech bicycle producer, was the victim of a shocking motorway service station heist which saw Shimano components for 10,000 bicycles stolen by a gang of criminals, the company has revealed.
The robbery happened on January 21 as a lorry driver took a break at a German motorway rest area, and involved the well-organised gang reportedly releasing sleeping gas into the cab before raiding the components.
Two weeks on, the offenders have not been caught, with BFI now warning other producers that bicycle components could be a new target for organised crime.
Of the cargo, loaded mostly with expensive e-bike parts, only nine boxes of low-end components were selectively left in the truck, while potential evidence in the rear of the vehicle was "disguised" using a fire extinguisher.
BFI has already warned customers the incident will cause further delays to an already troubled supply chain picture, and could push back production of some Superior, Rock Machine and other brands' bikes by up to a year.
> Here’s why the bike shortage isn’t going away any time soon
The producer said the robbery was particularly disturbing considering the pre-planned nature of the crime, and "in all likelihood the truck had been followed from the time it was loaded".
BFI hopes to replace some components from stock or production, but fears the loss will have a significant impact on future production.
"We haven't seen this situation before," BFI supply chain director Petr Krkoska said in a press release detailing the crime. "Even Shimano has not faced a targeted robbery of a shipment on a similar scale. We hope due to the shortage of parts these cases will not be repeated. Despite all the measures we have set up, no insurance can compensate us for the loss. Especially the reputation for late delivery.
"We decided to communicate this matter to warn other producers, because it could happen to them also. The situation for bicycle producers worldwide is really difficult. We are dealing with huge demand, but there is an even bigger shortage of components.
"This will delay production of some models by almost a year as there is no alternative on the market for many of the parts from this shipment. We are a strong and stable company, so this is just another obstacle out of many we are facing, but if this happened to smaller manufacturers, it would be liquidating."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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16 comments
The Czechs have good engineers, maybe they should start making bicycle components. Is anywhere outside of Italy and Germany making mass market bicycle components? (Does Sram still manufacture in Ireland and Germany?)
Well I suppose it might be possible but did anyone think to give the driver a medical checkup or to check the vehicle to see if there were any traces of gas being used and what it was?
I'm still trying to get my head round the "components for 10,000 bicycles" comment. What a strange way to quantify things. Is that based on 1 component per bike? Or 10 perhaps? Just odd..
Gassing drivers 'is a thing' on the continent it's been going on for years.
That's a bit of a blow really.. I tried ordering a tyre the other day and because it's difficult to get stock there are simply no deals available.. (or much stock).. I've never paid full rrp ever for a tyre before £70 each makes me wince.
Or, according to the Royal College of Anaesthetists, a myth.
“If there was a totally safe, odourless, potent, cheap anaesthetic agent available to thieves for this purpose it is likely the medical profession would know about it and be investigating its use in anaesthetic practice.”
If the gassing of drivers / caravanners / campers was as common as claimed, surely there would be a spate of deaths associated with it? I simply cannot accept that a bunch of thieves would be skilled enough to administer knock-out gases of various types without fatal overdose happening occasionally.
I've been hearing these stories for years, but don't really believe any of them.
I know people have been waiting ages for their new groupsets, but this is ridiculous
"Sleeping gas"? Is that Czech for 'inside job'?
As Secret_squirrel says, using a gas to put people to sleep is a *lot* different from the movie portrayal, and it's never been confirmed what the agent used in the Moscow siege even was. It's been widely speculated to have been aerosolized fentanyl or a fentanyl derivitive or analogue, which expains the death toll and highlights the problem: there's a fine line between causing unconsciousness and causing death, and it's easily crossed. There's a reason why it takes 14 years of training before you can call yourself a consultant anaesthetist.
As TVTropes.org points out "though anesthetic and hypnotic gasses of many sorts exist, and are still occasionally used in veterinary medicine, all have the properties of being fairly slow-acting, decidedly dosage-dependent, and fairly easily lethal."
So if these thieves did use … something … to knock out the driver, they were incredibly lucky not to kill the poor sod. Frankly if I were a truck hijacker, I'd see it as much less risky to pay the driver a few tens of thousand Koruna to say he'd been gassed than to actually gas him.
as anaesthetists are famed in healthcare for their love of lycra and all things bicycle as well as the ability to use these drugs perhaps we could start a lucrative sideline?
doi - consultant anaesthetist
Ether? The smell would be a bit obvious. Straight N2 followed by ether in air after unconsciousness, perhaps. But yeah, simpler to pay him or simply knock him out with a sap.
Similarly risky. The 1963 Great Train Robbers didn't even manage to render poor Jack Mills unconscious but he never fully recovered from the brain damage he sustained in the attack.
Brains are fragile. Temporarily stopping them from working without breaking them partially or completely is really difficult.
Well, The Daily Heil seems to manage it...
The first bit maybe - less convinced about the second.
That's shocking.
I wonder how the crims are planning on selling the components? I would guess they could try selling them to bike manufacturers/assemblers but probably more likely shove them on EBay or similar.
Though if they are reading this I'm in the market for 4 sets of road disc pads, 2 ultegra chains and a bikes worth of 9200.
If sleeping gas was genuinely used thats tantamount to attempted murder. Its not like the movies - more like the Moscow Theater Siege.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
"The Moscow theater hostage crisis (also known as the 2002 Nord-Ost siege) was the seizure of the crowded Dubrovka Theater by 40 to 50 armed Chechen terrorists on 23 October 2002, which involved 850 hostages and ended with the death of at least 170 people." (Most of the deaths were from the sleeping gas)