For two years, at first casually and then seriously enough to hammer out a daily schedule and a route to the Atlantic Ocean, Tom Nichini and three friends have been planning for the 76 days it will take them to cycle across Canada.
On Monday night, Nichini launched the team’s website and fundraising goals for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, a charity they picked because one of the riders, Oliver Levy, has a heart murmur.
Hours later, Nichini was awakened by his dad. The 20-year-old’s bicycle was stolen from his family’s locked garage.
“It’s a pretty big blow,” said the third-year UBC student who cycled to campus from his home in Point Grey. “There’s definitely a lot of shock and disbelief. Of all the possessions, the one that is most important to me in the moment — and always, really — was taken.”
Nichini rode a , a specialized cyclo-cross bicycle that is good on the road and good for touring — ideally suited for his weekend outings and to cross 6,500 kilometres of Canadian landscape. His was a rich shade of brown that shone bronze in the sun, and the Portland retailed in Canada for roughly $1,900 but was discontinued last year and can’t be replaced new.
Having a bike stolen is similar but often worse than the theft of a car, said a manager at West Point Cycles.
“To some degrees, the bike is a part of them — they make it work, they are the engine,” said Tim Woodburn. “Any theft or loss of property is a personal violation, but for many cyclists or people who use a bike as transportation, it does hit them a little harder. For many cyclists, that’s their only means of transportation. Theft leaves them feeling stranded.”
Public transit is one alternative, but it limits a cyclist to someone else’s schedule.Ěý Plus, “You’re not getting that endorphin rush from riding a bike,” said Woodburn.
“It’s a transportation solution, and for many people, they don’t get on their bike because they want to go for a ride. It’s a tool because it makes their life easier or better or more fulfilling. That’s what people tell us.
Woodburn and his wife Sara Woodburn started working at in 1998. They bought the business — the oldest bike shop in B.C. — in 2006 as the fourth family to own the company founded in 1930.
Theft does not mean a business boon for bicycle shops. Instead, it can dampen people’s motivation to ride, said Woodburn.
“There are so many people who come in resentful, tired and sick of our big city bike theft problem,” he said.
“A lot of people come in and they think bike theft is good for the industry and good for retailers because it means we sell more. But for everyone who replaces their bike, there is another person who decides they’re done with cycling. Theft is such a negative thing personally and for the industry.”
The Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»Police Department routinely monitors theft in the city, said media relations officer, Const. Brian Montague.
Although the VPD couldn’t provide a breakdown of bicycle thefts, Montague said, “Our analysts regularly look at neighbourhood trends so that we get an idea on what type of crime is taking place, if there are spikes or problems, who may be responsible, and how we can deploy resources.”
The theft of his bike has left Nichini rattled, not only for the loss of a valued possession but also for the nature of the crime.
The thief (or thieves) broke into the Nichini family’s garage not once but twice in the same week. On the first attempt, nothing was taken but a door window was broken. The family boarded it up, but the thief returned and broke into the garage where numerous bicycles were chained together.
The target appeared to be Nichini’s father’s road bike. The metal frame of mountain bike was nearly cut through before the attempt was abandoned. The road bike remained locked up and the thief instead made off with the Trek Portland.
VPD deployed a forensic team to the crime scene.
“The police didn’t expect them to come back,” said Nichini. “This person was clearly pretty determined.”
Nichini is replacing his bike with the help of West Point Cycles, the shop his mother and father visit twice a week for spin classes and for their own bicycle gear.
“It’s our local bike shop that my family has been going to for years,” he said, certain the foursome will depart on their cross-continent tour on May 26, as planned.
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Sea to sea on a bike seat
Claire Smale, 19 and from Montreal, crossed the country to study at UBC and later this month will cross back on her bicycle. Tom Nichini, 20, Montreal’s Oliver (Oli) Levy, 20, and Vancouverite Coco Nauss, 19, round out the foursome.
On May 26, they plan to leave Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»and cycle nearly 7,000 to the Atlantic Ocean in St. John’s Newfoundland.
They will drop south into the U.S. to avoid the trucking routes of Northern Ontario before returning to Canadian soil west of the Great Lakes.
Follow along at .
