Well the good news is that I'm still drunk enough that it's still a bit funny. The bad news is that the John Deere that you may know and love is gone. Stolen by, quite literally, by thieves in the night. I'd picked it up at the Veloshop at 5pm, rode it across the river to the Rose and Raindrop on SE Washington and Grand (for a Drupal meetup with Dries), and locked it up (with a U-lock) to a sign post. When I came back out around 8pm the sign post had been pulled out of the ground and the John Deere was no more.

Now, I'm wishing I'd jiggled the sign post before locking up to it. I filed a police report and the cop was super weird. He seemed to think that there was a pattern of thefts related to the Veloshop, like people were being followed leaving there and having their bike stolen. He also told me it would be a bad idea to report it on the bikeportland.org stolen bike list, saying it would reduce my chances of finding it on craigslist. That sort of make sense, you're a theif with half a clue you'd check there first before trying to unload something. It was a distinctive enough bike that I think it'd probably get parted out and the frame given the Krylon touch.

The run down:

• Frame - some wacky 56cm Italian lugged steel frame with no serial number, painted John Deere green, yellow stickers on the down tube and a real John Deere head badge.
• Seat - Specialized crotch saver seat with no-name aluminum seat post.
• Bars - some crazy narrow (39cm maybe?) Nitto track bars wrapped with yellow bar tape.
• Stem - painted to match the frame.
• Wheels - cheap Formula hubs, 700c rims with Specialized Armadillo tires.
• Pedals - the low-end Shimano clipless-SPD mountain bike pedals.
• Cranks - Miche track cranks, brand new (and not on the bike in the photo). The only thing I'm really pissed about. Why couldn't it have gotten stolen before I put those on?

Anyway, keep an eye out, I'd love to find it and crack some bike thieves in the head but I'd settle for just finding the f-ing cranks.

Update: yesterday I was talking to a friend who didn't know the John Deere had been stolen, and they mentioned seeing me riding down in Johnson Creek. I was like, "uh, no that wasn't me." So keep an eye out, it sounds like it's being riden around unpainted.

Another update: I realied I never linked to the stolen bike listing for the John Deere.