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Bike shop owner appeals for help recovering bikes bought with money from father's will

Thieves took Stuart Rider's personal bikes in shop break in...

The owner of a Yorkshire bike shop is appealing for help finding two stolen bikes with unusually high sentimental value.

On the evening of Monday November 24, Riders Cycle Centre in Skipton was broken into. Four bikes, two Fox forks and a Fox rear shock were stolen.

Two of the bikes belonged to owner Stuart Rider and were bought with funds left in his father's will.

The two titanium mountain bikes are a Ragley Blue Pig and a Ragley TD1. Both are engraved with 'MJR RIP' on the top tube in commemoration of his father Michael John Rider.

After the theft, Stuart posted on his Facebook page: "I can't describe how upset this has made me. My dad died too young. This bike was him. Always with me and enjoying my rides."

Unfortunately, local police have been unable to trace the bikes.

Stuart told road.cc: "They have been very helpful and have kept me well informed. The police who arrived the night of the robbery are all customers of mine.

"I moved to Yorkshire from Hertfordshire 7 yrs ago and after my father's death in 2011 I brought the bikes with his money. They have both been a big part of my time in Yorkshire and have accompanied me on many adventures, podiums and sportive. They have been part of me in more ways than I can mention and without them my cycling seems a little bit empty.

"A little part of my cycling soul is now missing."

Both bikes have Selle Italia Flite saddles. The Blue Pig has Hope pink brake levers while the TD1 has a Surly Blk steel fork and Shimano XTR brakes.

Anyone who has information about the missing bikes should contact Stuart at riderscyclecentre [at] live.co.uk.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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