Tom Nakashima wrote:
"41" wrote in message
oups.com...

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?


Agree, if people didn't steal, we wouldn't have to go through this.
-tom

That's not the problem. Bicycles are still thought of as children's toys in
America. A large percentage of the population only know what Huffys are,
and have only heard of those $5000 bikes... To the average joe, bicycle
theft is hardly a problem, so no solution needs to be formed.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training