Perhaps the ugliest bike it town (and certainly one of the worst bikes in town) but it was stolen anyhow from work about 7 years ago. It was my work-townie beater. I just added the fenders due to the amount of snow, sand, ice and wetness in town. The fenders were probably worth more than the bike. I emptied out the remains of a few spray cans on them. They had beige house paint on them. The bike was a Huffy Black Hills pseudo mountain bike with the factory black, white and grey splatter paint job that looks like an antique stove. The frame was bent from getting hit or run over before I got it. The seat post was rusted in but it was close enough for me. I installed a long bmx racing crank so I cold get up the hills in town. I changed out the pedals, tires cables, brake pads as they wore out pretty fast. Especially the brake pads on such rusty rims. I used to scare the local wanna be bike racers by taking it on the tuesday night worlds rides. One night I put the der in the rear wheel in the pack. Yeah, scare them.
I took it on Ragbrai 1 year. They had a gravel section advertised so I figured this would be a good bike for that. Well the county road department vaccummed that road which left sharp stones embedded in the compacted dust. That caused hundreds of ruined tires. I got to the next town where some friends mobile bike shop was set up. They were swamped with scores of people needing new tires & tubes so I got put to work. Been working with them on Ragbrai ever since.
The local gendarmes couldn't file a stolen property report because the bike had question marks in the serial number and their computer system wouldn't take those. Yes, it really had question marks, no doubt about that. Computer programmers know ? & * are wild card search characters. (msDOS!). It was my 4th bike stolen from campus. The 3rd was another Huffy mtb that was pristene which lasted about 2 weeks. Now I have a near-ground floor office of my own that is large enough so I keep my current beater inside which is a much better bike. Working in a college town where bike theft is a sport to some you have to expect it.
Other stolen bikes I never had pictures of:
Schwinn Skipper (my first "Stingray", a conversion)
Schwinn Varsity. (they left a collegiate in trade at home)
Schwinn Collegiate. (stolen from school so I don't think it was the same thief)
next 3 at one time:
Motobecane Nomad (good riddance and may the thief get what he deserves)
Raleigh International in Copper paint.
Schwinn Paramount tandem blue.
Grants department store 3 speed.
wifes: Fuji Royal
Odd that we remember the stolen bikes better than the ones we sold or still have even if they weren't all that good.
Huffy.Black.Hills.1