Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
Tom Nakashima wrote:
My son enters college this fall, so I put together a bike for him by
salvaging spare components and a frame that I wasn't using.
Suggestions on making the bike inconspicuous?
Maybe di sguising the bike isn't worth the effort for today's thieves?
Suggestions from college students.
-tom

Yay! I'm an expert on this. Okay so here are my ten steps to a theft-proof
bike:

1. Spraypaint... the cheaper the better. Spray t he whole bike frame and
make sure to spraypaint the tires and grips, too. It makes it look like the
owner is really dumb. Put some scratches in the paint so it doesn't look so
cherry. This should be easy to do since the spraypaint will probabl y just
flake off just by you looking at it funny.

2. Stickers! Get so many stickers that you're almost inhaling them. Get
them from your local radio station. The flashier the better. Apply
stickers to everything on the bike, especially the frame. Make sure to do
the saddle, too.

3. Duct tape! Put random duct tape bits so that they look like they're
actually trying to hold something together. Tape the saddle, too... this
makes the bike really cry out "I am a ****bomb!"

4. Cover up any and all brand names and models.

5. Put a crappy, broken, bent rack on the back for ultra-nerd factor. Add
rusty fenders and baskets to taste. Nobody wants a dorky bike.

6. Attach as many broken reflectors and light mounts as you can on the
handlebars, seatpost and seatstays. These will make it seem like the owner
keeps breaking lights, buying new ones, and never getting rid of the old
mounts.

7. Place tennis balls and cards in the spokes, and of course bar plugs with
streamers coming out. That might scare off even the seasoned thieves.

8. Apply the biggest, most gaudy bell... no wait, horn... on the bike...
something like this Barbie Deluxe Bicycle Horn:
http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/...resized200.jpg
Tell your son to honk it within 100 feet of any human or animal.

9. If you want to go overboard, find a cosmetically rusty chain and cassette
and put those on.

10. Lock up the bike with both a non-pickable u-lock and a cable lock!


We should not have to go to such extremes and to ride garbage. What
would car owners say if that's what they had to do to their cars,
simply to make them workable transportation devices?


As I said in another thread: the real key is not the lock but the rack.
There are several manufacturers who make racks consisting of two large
steel horizontal arms with steel projections, the arms closing around
the bike, the projections going through the wheels and main triangle.
You then use only a padlock to lock the two arms together, inside a
shielded housing that can only be accessed from the bottom, near ground
level, or else a U-lock to keep the two arms together. You need only
carry a reasonable padlock for very high security.

[I just did a search to find a manufacturer of these things. No luck
yet. I have seen at least three different brands though. Will try to
find a manufacturer's label on one of them.]


Furthermore, what's necessary is to make bicycle theft the same crime
as auto theft, and to install video surveillance at key locations, to
mop up the organized crime gangs who are responsible for so much of it.


There IS a solution and like so much else it just involves a few people
in the right places getting off their asses.