Disguising good bikes as rubbish bikes to prevent theft....

samc

Retro Guru
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So having had a few bikes nicked, I was wondering about replacing the decals of my latest nice commuter build to make it look like it wasn't worth anything.

My last bike to get nicked was a cannondale, and I suspect I was followed home from work before it was broken out of the garage in the dead of night. I'm just wondering; if it had 'Matalan' or 'Argos' on it rather than 'Cannondale', would the break-in have occured at all?

Or are thieves generally after any pedol bikle which they can sell for £10 to spend on onions and sherbert dib-dabs or whatever?
 
good solution is having a good frame but which looks a bit beaten up and hardly any stickers or none at all !

I have a sunn nice revolt Fuji Sl frame but which does not look fancy with XTR 950 combos and rear mech to be efficient
an STX crankset and average looking mavic rims on decent hubs
the whole is very effective, does not look very attractive but it is the purpose :LOL:

to a trained eye, some parts are attractive but to the vast majority of onlookers it is a "dog" ;)

it looks a bit dirtier now, this is the picture just afetr buildup.stem and seatpost have been changed
Sunn94Revolt01-3.jpg
 
This is how I ended up finding retrobike in the first place. Was sourcing old parts to run on my Karakoram which I was using as a messenger bike...

If someone goes after a bike like this, then you know it's someone who really knows their bikes, rather than someone desperate, which makes it worse when it happens.....
 
Just put some Specialized stickers on the frame. No one will nick one of them!!

al. ;)
 
I read an article once about bicycle couriers in the US disguising their bikes so they didn't get stolen. They used to wrap inner tubes etc around the tubes to make they look rough. Depends how far you want to go. If you're commuting on something decent then might be worth wrapping electical tape (or similar) around the brand/model decals. At least it could be removed and won't leave a mark.
 
There seem to be two varieties of disguised bike in Edinburgh, very cheap and trying to hide it and very good and trying to hide it.
 
EarlofBarnet":b846effx said:
I read an article once about bicycle couriers in the US disguising their bikes so they didn't get stolen. They used to wrap inner tubes etc around the tubes to make they look rough. Depends how far you want to go. If you're commuting on something decent then might be worth wrapping electical tape (or similar) around the brand/model decals. At least it could be removed and won't leave a mark.

I think this is a deterrent. It's all about how permanent the uglification looks. If you see a bike covered in tape, you probably think something decent under it, but I think the idea is if it looks like it will be very difficult to remove it will put thieves off.

It always seemed to me that the brands that get the most attention are the ones that are decent but not that high end, your Cannondales, Specializeds, Oranges and such rather than "Dekerf? Never heard of it mate."
 
Having a decent bike is like having a decent car, there are always people around that like to take the shine off someone elses pleasure, why they do it, jealousy could be a reason, but I suppose there are others, especially those into selling things.

Anyway what is the point having a good bike if one is going to make it look crap, I mean crap in say repainting it or covering it in camoflage, why make it heavier, lousy to handle and all that, when the simple answer is just to protect your property.

My way is stickers, remove them, they don't last anyway and why should I advertise other people's products. No big names on my bike as I know those that tend to thieve have a thing about 'names', in clothing and other things, as if 'names' are the requirement not the article. But what I have on my bike, I know what it is, it was obtained for what it is, not the name in bears, it does the job required of it. The only stickers I do not remove, is the bike's own decals, because they are slowly removing themselves and who wants to nick a Saracen, especially since the mindset is still there about old Saracens and the derogatory term coined from the name, so perhaps even the Saracen name keeps people clear.

The other thing of course, is I keep the bike locked to something, seat keeper fitted, security skewers ,security hex screws holding the components on and I may do what I did with my old bike, engrave the bike frame number into the components, although soon, I will be getting the thing security etched and registered with the local plod.

But my bike is attractive, metallic black powder coat, raw aluminium alloy and red ano, I like it that way, it pleases me, but if I had to camoflage it to stop it drawing attention, then what is the point.
 
I have an old friend who painted his brand new Ritchey flat black back when it was new, a thousand years ago. He sprayed everything, including hubs, spokes, derailleurs, cranks and shifters. When you walked by it thrown up against a wall, it looked like an old, trashed bike---unless you looked close and could see the quality components under the paint. A very effective disguise!
 
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