It's April 1, 2025 as I write this, but what I'm about to tell you is sadly no one's attempt at a bad joke. You see, some thoughtless individuals (at least two, from the video) just stole six motorcycles from a school in Aurora, Colorado. Not just any school, either; it is, in fact, a motorcycle training school.
It's called Ride On, and it offers a range of courses for both new and continuing motorcyclists who want to improve their skills. From the MSF Basic Rider Course to Yamaha's ChampStreet course, to Colorado DMV Motorcycle Driving Skills Testing, this school has it all.
Riders learn the skills they need to do well on the road, all while using the school's bikes. Or, at least, they would if those bikes didn't just get stolen out of the storage container where they live while they're not in use. I've never been to this specific school, but I've been to schools in the Chicago area with storage solutions that look very similar.
The bikes were stolen last week, on Thursday night, ahead of a packed weekend of classes as the weather starts to warm up for the season. I don't know how quickly MSF Basic Rider Courses fill up in Aurora, but from experience, they tend to fill up almost as soon as registration opens in Illinois. Here's a CBS news report about the theft.
In total, six bikes (about half the school's units) are now missing. Since the motorcycle classes take place on Aurora Public School grounds, they had surveillance video of the theft to share. You can see clips from it in this news video, which appears to show at least two people involved in walking the bikes away from the shipping container, one by one.
The six bikes stolen include two 2023 BMW G 310 Rs (one white, one black); a 2020 Suzuki DR200SE in black; a 2017 Suzuki DR200SE in gray; a 2013 Suzuki GW250 in black; and a 2011 Suzuki TU250X in silver. So far, one of the bikes has reportedly reappeared, but it's not clear when (or if) the other five will be found. It's also not clear what condition the one that's been found is in, nor what condition the other bikes might be in.
All Ride On's owner, Jim Wilson, says he wants is for the bikes to be returned.
