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Making a College bike Inconspicuous?



 
 
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  #31  
Old September 8th 05, 05:50 PM
Tom Nakashima
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Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?


"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


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  #32  
Old September 8th 05, 05:53 PM
Brandtness
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Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?

Hi Tom,

Phil the Squid is pretty thorough. As for QR's, hose clamping them
front and rear can slow down the opportunistic thief.

Marc

  #33  
Old September 8th 05, 10:52 PM
Marcus Coles
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Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?

Brandtness wrote:
Hi Tom,

Phil the Squid is pretty thorough. As for QR's, hose clamping them
front and rear can slow down the opportunistic thief.

Marc


A good tip for sure, salvaged clamps always look best.

Everybody seems to have forgotten the old hot glue gun bead, gold and
black paint. Yes that's right, the fake bad glob and hope brass braze
repair. Guaranteed to make the thief look elsewhere.

- Marcus






  #34  
Old September 8th 05, 11:16 PM
Phil, Squid-in-Training
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Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?

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


  #35  
Old September 9th 05, 01:47 AM
Someone
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Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?


Jasper Janssen wrote:
...
Make it *con*spicuous. If they have to repaint the bike and/or sell it a
few states over to avoid the original owner claiming it when he sees it
across the street, they won't bother....


I guess my bike,
http://www.ihpva.org/incoming/2002/sunset/Sunset001.jpg, should be
pretty theft-proof, then.
--
Tom Sherman - Fox River Valley

  #36  
Old September 9th 05, 01:49 AM
Someone
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Posts: n/a
Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?


Brian Kerr wrote:
Someone wrote:
G. Daniels wrote:


try rusto auto paint in primer brown or grey then wear bright colors or
use dayglo poster paper
take the seat with you-bikes without seats are useless



I used to see a bike commuter on a regular basis (over a period of
several years) that rode an ATB without a seat.


Female?


By all appearances, no. Sorry.
--
Tom Sherman - Fox River Valley

  #37  
Old September 9th 05, 03:45 AM
(PeteCresswell)
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Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?

Per Phil, Squid-in-Training:
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.


Somebody I know who came back from the Netherlands said bike theft there was
even worse than anyplace he'd heard about here.

He says there's a saying in Amsterdam that the canals are 8 feet deep: 2 feet of
water and 4 feet of bicycles.
--
PeteCresswell
  #38  
Old September 9th 05, 12:53 PM
Jasper Janssen
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Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?

On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 22:45:33 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:
Per Phil, Squid-in-Training:
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.


Somebody I know who came back from the Netherlands said bike theft there was
even worse than anyplace he'd heard about here.


Well, I dunno. Amsterdam is pretty bad, and the other 3 big cities are
close behind, but rural theft is fairly low. I live in one of those other
3 big cities, and I've had my bike stolen, what, 3, 4 times? Mostly at
times when I left the keys in, so it was my own damn fault.

He says there's a saying in Amsterdam that the canals are 8 feet deep: 2 feet of
water and 4 feet of bicycles.


Heh. When I fished in the Delft canals once, I got about 8 or 10 bikes in
one place and very nearly one with every throw. But that's more vandalism
than actual *theft* (although you can't tell the difference as a victim,
of course).


Jasper
  #39  
Old September 9th 05, 12:54 PM
Jasper Janssen
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Posts: n/a
Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?

On 8 Sep 2005 17:47:48 -0700, "Someone" wrote:

I guess my bike,
http://www.ihpva.org/incoming/2002/sunset/Sunset001.jpg, should be
pretty theft-proof, then.


Probably. 'bents, I'd imagine, are fairly unsaleable since so few people
know what to do with them.

I still wouldn't leave it completely unlocked.


Jasper
  #40  
Old September 9th 05, 01:21 PM
Mike Martin
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Posts: n/a
Default Making a College bike Inconspicuous?

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:54:06 +0000, Jasper Janssen wrote:

On 8 Sep 2005 17:47:48 -0700, "Someone" wrote:

I guess my bike,
http://www.ihpva.org/incoming/2002/sunset/Sunset001.jpg, should be
pretty theft-proof, then.


Probably. 'bents, I'd imagine, are fairly unsaleable since so few people
know what to do with them.

I still wouldn't leave it completely unlocked.


Jasper



Yeah, a friend of mine just had his 'bent stolen. He had insurance on it
and they paid. Sadly the cops really can't be bothered to look for his
bike.

Mike
--
remove NOSPAM to respond but I prefer followups in the NG
 




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