Recently opened Calderdale bike shop, The Cycle Factory of Todmorden fell victim to the devastating flooding that swept through the valley on Boxing day, but to make matters worse opportunist thieves broke into the flooded premises and stole tens of thousands of pounds of bikes.
The theft and flood damage was posted on the shop’s Facebook page on Sunday along with a list of the bikes stolen, many still boxed.
Struggling for words here we got flooded on Saturday as did a lot of people. Last night we were robbed by the scum of the earth praying on flood victims. Please like and share to help find these bikes. I’ll try list them properly with an edit later. Some new in boxes some customers bikes some reps bikes.
2016 Kona Process 153 medium
2016 Kona Hei Hei Trail medium only one in the country
2016 Kona Process 111 medium
2016 Kona Precept 150 large (boxed)
2015 Mondraker Dune XR Large
2016 Cube Attention 19″ boxed
2016 Cube Attention 21″ boxed
More details when we have them.
Further down the valley in Hebden Bridge, bike shop Blazing Saddles were completely wiped out by the flooding and staff and volunteers have spent Sunday and Monday clearing out debris and cleaning up. With another storm due to arrive on Wednesday they remain on high alert for further flooding.
A Flood Relief campaign for people and businesses hit by the flooding in Calderdale has been set up and has raised over £100,000 at time of writing. You can contribute to the fund here.
ITV report that up £20,000 worth of bikes were stolen.
“It’s indescribable when you come in and find the place flooded and the huge clean up that’s on and how low you feel about that,” said Bryony Gibbins from the Cycle Factory, speaking to ITV earlier today.
“Then waking up the next morning to find out you have also been robbed and have lost so much salvageable stock that you have managed to save and keep safe. It’s just heartbreaking.”
The Singletrack office sits in an old mill on the bank of the Rochdale canal. This image, taken by Todmorden resident and photographer, Craig Shaw (more images on his Facebook page here) shows the state of the canal at the flood’s height on Saturday. The building in the top right of the image is the Singletrack office.
On Monday this was the view of the canal from our office. Our office is on two floors with the ground floor sitting lower than the level of the canal and yet our office was exceptionally lucky and stayed dry. The same can not be said for many of the businesses and homes around us.
