I take great care to keep my bike dirty. I regularly maintain and grease the transmission clearance and bearings, but the frame must always be a little greasy and muddy, the handlebar tape slack and the saddle full of tape for fictitious repairs. Every part is carefully chosen for its quality and style mismatched with the others.
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That all worked for me in Toronto, until the pandemic. Then someone peeled the tape off, revealing an actual crack on the saddle, and still took it.
Steel 27” wheel stolen. (And they unbolted the other wheel even though it was locked all along???)
Someone tried to rip off my dollar store bell, but just broke it (and possibly cut themself).
Bike light holder stolen, even though it’s like a $25 light and only a few extra dollar discount to buy without the holder.
Ugh…
And the whole bike is some steel POS older than me, but always U-locked, tho now I cable lock the other wheel and chained my saddle.
Meth is a hell of a drug.
Anti-theft strategies can fail simply because some thieves are not in a fit mental state and act irrationally. I once had a bike frame damaged because I had it secured to a bike rack, and someone tried to steal it by grabbing the rear tire and yanking on the bike in the hopes that the lock would fail. Instead it snapped off a small chunk of the frame behind the rear axle. This was an aluminum frame on a $400 bike too, I was kind of impressed at how hard the bum must have been going at it.
I was impressed that the base of my bell held on. I used a crooked screw (patent pending) to make up for the plastic threads being cross-threaded…
People steal the weirdest things: a couple of months ago someone got into my pickup and made off with a hitch pin that happened to be sitting on the floorboard. Resale value might be... two dollars?
After having 2 bikes stolen back in college, my last (brand new) one was haphazardly spray painted rusty-brown and had cotton stuffing taped to the underside of the seat.
That one never got stolen, despite having it for much longer.
I also do this. Had two bikes stolen in quick succession a while back.
Now: Duct tape all over the frame. Different handle tape on each side.
No theft since