Hi,

My 1997 green steel Specialized Stumpjumper has been stolen from a communal locked area outside my flat in Cambridge (nr York St) last night or early this morning (15/11/2011).

Given that I brought this bike new and in the intervening period have covered a fair proportion of the Alps on it I’d be deeply grateful for any assistance in recovering it. (In addition to which it has been acting as my commuter for the last year or so since the last one got stolen, so unfortunately there is also a rather more practical problem here too).

I have of course contacted the police, and expect that nothing will happen for my pains (they gave some crap about a suspended investigation, bah!).

On a practical note, does anyone have any hints about how to tackle my contents insurance? esp. wrt valuation? (although natch I’d prefer to have the bike back)

(note to moderators: I hope that this is the right forum for this, please accept my apologies and move this topic if not)

Details:

Model: 1997 Steel Stumpjumper (mostly stock; I didn’t change much out so if anyone has a copy of the original spec I’d appreciate corrections)

Colour Scheme: Green Frame, Black & Red Forks

Frame: Steel CroMo 17 inch frame (I believe), all decals are present and in fairly good condition, original green paintwork is in mostly good condition with the usual scratches you’d expect. The paint is worn where my heels have scuffed the chain-stays in the past, and for a long time I didn’t have any chain protection for the chain stays (since I have fitted some old inner tube under the chain with 3 zip-ties) — therefore the paint and metal are damaged by the chain (also there was a clear plastic sticker under the chain — presumably to provide some protection in the showroom?). I brought it in Germany, and there is an additional decal fitted by the shop on the seat-tube, slightly under the point where it meets the top-tube; it reads “Eddie Bauer” on the top and “rad sport” (or might have been “ren sport”? my German is a little rusty) on the bottom with a stylized sketch of a stick figure riding a bike over the top. The mount for the rear derailleur is possibly slightly bent as a result of various accidents.

Forks: 1997 Judy XC in black and red colour scheme; I’ve also fitted them with steel springs in place of the original elastomer+spring stack (springs are different rates — soft & medium IIRC).

Transmission: 8 speed cassette (I don’t recall if it was XT or LX — which ever was stock), 3 rings at the front with a Shimano chain (IG70?)

Crankset: Specialized ‘Son of Strongarm’ cranks fitted with I think 22-32-42 (ie stock), pedals are Shimano SPD pedals (I think black coloured M520 — out of a friends spares box so I don’t recall model for sure),

Front Mech: M569 (LX 1997) Front Mech

Rear Mech: M739 (XT 1997) Rear Mech, note that as a result of various accidents and probably general mishandling there are obvious scoring marks on the bolt & surrounding metal that mount to the frame.

Shifters: ST-M008 shifters (95/96 XT shifters — I swapped these in for the original LX ones)

Brakes: Avid 1D with matching levers, brake-pads are heavily worn [replacements are sitting on my desk] and manufactured by Koolstop, but marked as “Ritchey Logic”; actually they are an odd old beast and apart from having v-brake style mounting bolts appear to be the same shape as kool-stop canti pads (but were fitted as original). Given wear on pads, the lever cable adjusters are naturally wound out all the way.

Wheels: Stock Mavic 328 (?) rims (anyone know which ones exactly?). Front hub is a Specialized Stout (?) hub, and the rear is a black LX ‘parallax’ hub, both fitted with their respective QR skewers.

Saddle: Original black Specialized model (I’m not sure what it is though), ripped in a couple of places as a result of various drivers trying to kill me (1 on the RHS as the material folds around under the saddle, and a split on the LHS of the nose — that might just be age though!). The seat-post is ‘held’ in place with silver QR marked ‘Procraft’; I quote ‘held’ as in fact the seat-post is rather firmly stuck these days. The seat-post is also Ritchey Logic (light weight? with an RFL logo in a shield shape I think?)

Stem and Handlebars: Stem is (and is marked) ‘Scott Team Issue’ — I seem to recall it’s 110mm long, but that’s a rather fuzzy memory. The handle-bars are straight Ritchey Logic Force Light 170g T6 (?); slightly bent under the right-hand bar-end, and packed slightly underneath that end with duct tape. Grips are a Specialized pattern, with a worn side that has been rotated to face downwards (as in away from the hands). The bar ends are silver coloured WCS Pro bar-ends (Ritchey Logic again?) the logos are pretty much worn off (but my brother assures me that they look very 1990’s!), the right hand hand bar-end has extremely deep scratching/denting as a result of being tipped off at high speed on tarmac by an ‘absent minded’ pedestrian.

At the time the bike was stolen it was ‘wearing’ a MagicShine MJ-836 head-light on the handlebars (mounted with the MS plastic bracket) and a waterproof battery pack (with the lcd on the front) strapped under the top-tube.

Other details: There was a black crud-catcher fitted with the elastic strap under the down-tube, as mentioned inner tube zip-tied over the chain-stay. Also 2 Specialized bottle cages fitted (the rubber band type), and a Specialised hand pump fitted on the LHS under the bottle cage on the down tube. The ends of the brake & gear cables are all finished off with heat-shrink tubing (as opposed to the normal crimps).

Unfortunately I don’t have the serial number to hand, I may be able to find the original receipt, but given the time past since I purchased it, it’s certainly not at the top of the pile!

I’m afraid I don’t seem to have any detailed at-rest photos of the bike, so I’m going to stick in a couple of photos from tooling around Thetford a while-ago (images are scaled down).

Many thanks for any help,

Nick

PS: please let me know if there are any other details I should add (Meanwhile thanks to silverclaws whose post http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1202592 I have liberally ripped-off).

Are you sure its the steel one and not the M2 aluminium one? I have a 98 that looked very like that but its hard to tell from the photo if the tubes are the oversized alu ones, anyway this is mine:

http://www.bikepedia.com/quickbike/BikeSpecs.aspx?Year=1998&Brand=Specialized&Model=Stumpjumper+M2&Type=bike

i will keep an eye out in herts

I managed to find the original (1997!) sales receipt, and so I’ve got the serial number:

Frame serial number: #M6JM08924

Are you sure its the steel one and not the M2 aluminium one?

Yes, it’s definitely steel, the decals do say CroMo on them somewhere — and there is a little surface rust on the cable rubs on the head-tube. Given it doesn’t seem to feature in any internet resource I wonder if they did it as an entry level Stumpjumper in a couple of smaller markets (in my case Germany) possibly to use up some old stock?

i will keep an eye out in herts

Thanks!