We got an old friend back last night, after not seeing this friend for about 8 months. This friend is an old Instigator bike that has been running in our demo program for about 5 years now. We take it to the Las Vegas Interbike tradeshow each year and can proudly boast that it's the oldest bike at the Dirt Demo for people to ride. In fact, we have the two oldest bikes at Dirt Demo, the other is a matching Instigator.

The missing old friend was stolen from us while it was sitting in a friends backyard one night. Shit happens, we know that. We wrote it off as being gone for good, until Brauer Power was patrolling a local online garage sale site and noticed this old friend was for sale. No F'ing way!

Luby, the possessor at the time it was stolen, called the guy and told him he was interested in buying it. So five of us 20-30 something repo men went over for a looksee. This bike was easy to recognize with dinged up bright orange paint, mismatched wheels, mismatched shifters, and an old Marzocchi fork. It was definitely our bike. As Luby and I talked to the guy as if we were still going to give him $350 for it, I asked him if he realized it was stolen. Of course, he replied "no". Whether this guy was the thief or not, it didn't really matter. When I told him it was the property of Surly bikes, he wanted nothing to do with it anymore. So we took our old friend home and all was good again.

So for the actual person who stole the bike, I have a message for you. We hope you liked your extended test ride. Perhaps you even liked it enough to actually buy one someday instead of taking someone else's. Part of me wishes I forgot to tighten the front quick release skewer so you would've skidded your face along the asphalt of an oily street during rush hour. The other part of me is glad you actually ride bikes. In that sense, we are the same. I just hope you believe in karma.