Stolen CBR recovered because of new tires

[Janna]

A couple of days ago, my brother's 2008 CBR600 was stolen from in front of his house in Vallejo. He lives in a not-great part of town, and his garage is currently unusable due to needed repairs. He's been chaining his bike to his Jeep in front of his house.

A few days ago, he rode home from work at 4 am, like he does, went inside to get something he needed to be able to chain the bike up, and he fell asleep sitting down.

When he woke up, the bike was gone.

He had just put new tires on it, and they weren't heat-cycled in yet.

Friday, the cops called to say they had found the bike. The asshat who stole it caught the eye of the police, who tried to pull him over. He took off trying to evade them...and when he took a corner on those brand-new tires, he went down.

Asshat is now in the hospital. Cops said he was a scumbag well known to them who just got out of Folsom in May. He's going back to jail for this. (Left at the scene of the accident was his 2X big-ass leather jacket. Nice jacket, too.)

Damage:

He rattle-canned the CBR. Sprayed it matte black. That alone is criminal.

He punched out the ignition. (Gotta figure out how to replace that.)

He took off the mirrors for some reason. Both of them are gone along with the license plate. Wires are hanging off the back.

The bike took damage on the right side: bent handlebar, ruined plastics, brake lever sheared off, slider sheared off, metal scraped off the engine bits.

Good news: Radiator is not leaking and seems fine. The bike shifts. No other damage is readily apparent to the naked eye (as in frame, forks, stuff like that).

Bad news: My brother only had liability. (I know, I know... and trust me, HE knows.)

Anyway, the combination of brand-new tires and evading officers led to some instant karma for the MF. But my poor brother is kinda screwed.

 

[Janna]

A couple more shots

 

[Cereal KLR]

Why they quit hanging horse thieves is beyond me.

 

[Janna]

BTW, what might look like shiny oil all over everything is actually water. My brother had the tow truck bring the bike to our place, and it was raining at the time. Nick dried off the top of the bike for his photos, but he didn't wipe down the tires. The engine is not leaking at all.

 

[DayDay]

why would you go through the trouble of "painting" the bike and then ride it around with a punched out ignition and wires hanging where a license plate used to be?

 

[Janna]

Here's a stock photo of what Jeff's bike looked like before:

 

[hophead]

scumbag thieves! sorry bout your brother's loss but can't the insurance total it out? stolen bike is damaged goods as soon as it was stolen.does only have liability mean no theft coverage at all?

 

[Janna]

scumbag thieves! sorry bout your brother's loss but can't the insurance total it out? stolen bike is damaged goods as soon as it was stolen.does only have liability mean no theft coverage at all?

Yep. Liability does NOT cover theft. So he's on the hook for all damages, unless he can miraculously squeeze a civil suit award out of the asshat--and collect.

 

[Mortifer]

Damn that really sucks but glad he got it back!

I wonder if any paint remover type product could be used to strip the plastics without destroying them? Call Kelly Moore or similar and ask, worth a shot.

and keep yours eyes open for someone parting out a cbr, might be able to snag a ignition/gas cap set.

 

[NorCal_SV650S]

Why do people that have bikes in shady neighborhoods always have shiny beautiful sportbikes WITHOUT theft coverage...

You should try to get some of those ebay made in China already painted plastics, the set usually runs like $500...

Ignition shouldnt be too hard to fix...

the rest? look for parts on ebay...

 

[Cabrito]

does only have liability mean no theft coverage at all?

Yup.. No coverage for theft.

Sucks for sure.

 

[weasel]

Well it's better then a total loss and the got the bastard

Looks like he dumped it a couple of times

 

[rsrider]

tragic.....looks like your brother is going to become a streetfighting man.

 

[two wheel tramp]

I'm so sorry about what happened, but even I have full coverage on my old GS500. Poor bruder. That's a hard lesson to learn and his poor bike!

 

[Flying Pig]

bittersweet ending :/

Was your brother also on the hook for the tow too?

 

[akacastle]

+1

Why they quit hanging horse thieves is beyond me.

Me too

 

[morthrane]

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild her. We have the technology. Better than she was before. Better, stronger, faster."

 

[bluenoser]

scumbag thieves! sorry bout your brother's loss but can't the insurance total it out? stolen bike is damaged goods as soon as it was stolen.does only have liability mean no theft coverage at all?

PSA to all: Talk to your insurance agent; you can have liability with 3rd party fire & theft.

 

[ThumperX]

Full coverage on a late model sportbike can be out of this world expensive. I think I've heard quotes of 3K a year so a 2008 stolen in 2011 he probably breaks better than even just having the liability.

Still horrible and the gamble seems never to be worth it.

So sorry for the damages but congratulations to your brother on getting the bike back

 

[sliverstorm]

Damn that really sucks but glad he got it back!

I wonder if any paint remover type product could be used to strip the plastics without destroying them? Call Kelly Moore or similar and ask, worth a shot.

and keep yours eyes open for someone parting out a cbr, might be able to snag a ignition/gas cap set.

I tried soaking painted plastics in Simple Green in the past. I don't remember how well it worked, but I think it did work, and as strippers go you can't get much softer.

Alternatively, Xylene is a god when it comes to stripping paint. Test a little on an invisible corner of the plastics, and see if it does anything to the actual plastic.