Creative Deterrents
Yesterday, I had to bike to a less familiar area of town. I was unsure how safe the area was, and, once I locked up my lovely bike, I found it hard to walk away. Would it be there when I returned?
While I could ride a beater bike instead I get so much more enjoyment from riding a bike I love. So instead of getting a rusty tank of a bike I’ve been thinking of ways to make my pretty bike less attractive to thieves:
I think this will work great. At least until someone invents a bicycle cloaking device. And I don’t think that’s far off seeing as both me any my bicycle become immediately invisible to everyone the second I get on it. It’s just a matter of finding a way of making that happen when I’m done riding it too.
Pinhead gives me so much more confidence! pinheadcomponents.com
Thanks for the info! Who knew! Thank you!
Get a folding bike!
Indeed! I’ve got a highly optioned Brompton, and I always take inside, and never worry.
Also, it’s its own shopping cart, as I fold it and style it around the local Trader Joe’s on its Easy-Wheeled rack!
Double locks go a long ways to deter the casual thief. I had a thought. How about a trashy looking garbage bag flung over the bike. It would be easier to carry than the electrical voltage box!
The best solution is camouflage – make the bike look like a wreck. Flat the tires, chain off, remove the seat, dust it with rust, smash it with a hammer.
And that will get your lock or chain cut and the bike taken away as abandoned…
Dear Bikeyface,
Bike theft is such a shame–disgusting, actually. Bike thieves aren’t bicyclists, a real bicyclist would never steal another bicyclist’s ride.
In my private country of Dontunderstan, the death penalty is reserved for only three crimes:
1. Genocide, (the following said in the voice of Eeyore), “Well, alright, I guess that has to be first….”;
2. Bike Thievery;
3. Those miscreants who leave their bicycles out in the weather to rot and rust.