Your ‘not worth nicking’ ‘touring’ bike

[Carlton green]

Theft and fear of theft is a topic touched on in a few recent threads but reducing the attraction of bikes doesn’t seem to have been explored - which is probably best because otherwise threads wander too far from the original post.

I’m wondering what other members do to in the way of running good bikes, those capable of touring miles but maybe used for other purposes too, that have little to no appeal to those that steal?

My own philosophy is to run old bikes that, to the eye, are clearly undesirable in some ways but still function well. My daily rider has a mixte frame, three speed gears, side pull brakes and a bottle dynamo. I’d have thought that it’s not worth stripping for parts and that very few folk want to ride a mixte frame - though I’ve been very pleased with mine.

What ‘not worth nicking’ bike do you run? How have you created a good bike, that’ll carry you in comfort wherever you wish to go, that also has minimal appeal to the ‘light fingered’?

[Barrowman]

I recall spotting what was clearly a quality frame daubed with some horrible lumpy black coating and some middle of the road components in Oxford. (Locked up) The owner came out of a nearby shop, student at the University , it was a Bob Jackson deliberately disguised to minimise kerbside appeal to the light fingered.

[rjb]

Folding shoppers are useful to deter thieves. After parking up, remove the hinge pin and carry it in your pocket. No tea leaf will manage to ride it away.

[tenbikes]

I have a Stumpjumper metal matrix, one of only 500 made.
It is tastefully Hammerited

Sadly this has destroyed its resale value. But it survived the Edinburgh commute!

[PH]

I’m wondering what other members do to in the way of running good bikes, those capable of touring miles but maybe used for other purposes too, that have little to no appeal to those that steal?

I think it's an often made mistake to treat bikes thieves as a homogenised group with the same purpose and objectives, The unappealing bike to one, might be the ideal for another, the value to the thief isn't necessarily the same as the value to the owner. For example - A Rohloff bike from a small scale manufacturer is going to be of considerable value to the specialist who's going to strip it and knows where there's a market, but pretty much worthless to someone who is looking for a quick cash sale in the dodgy pub or a pawn shop, the person looking for a bike to ride for a laugh or because they missed the bus, won't care if it's worth £100 or £5,000.
There's plenty of anecdote to back this up, stories of garages broken into and the cheaper bikes taken, unusual bikes stolen and soon recovered. Then on the opposite side bikes destroyed in the theft because of the value of components.
All my bikes would be expensive to replace, they're all touring bikes, used daily, sometimes parked for hours, decent locks, insured. I haven't had a bike stolen for twenty years and that was a cheap hack. I'm not going to base any bike choice on it's appeal to thieves, because I wouldn't know what that is.

[TrevA]

I’ve had 3 bikes stolen over the years. All from city centre locations, all protected with an inadequate lock and all left in the same place for a long period of time. I’ve never had anything stolen when out in the countryside, at the cafe on club rides or whilst on tour. Whilst it does probably happen, I think the chances of your touring bike being stolen whilst on tour are microscopically small. I don’t even bother to lock my bike whilst I’m in a cafe on a rural ride, though I like to have it in sight if I can.

[Carlton green]

My thanks to all those who have replied so far .

I’m wondering what other members do to in the way of running good bikes, those capable of touring miles but maybe used for other purposes too, that have little to no appeal to those that steal?

I think it's an often made mistake to treat bikes thieves as a homogenised group with the same purpose and objectives, The unappealing bike to one, might be the ideal for another, the value to the thief isn't necessarily the same as the value to the owner. For example - A Rohloff bike from a small scale manufacturer is going to be of considerable value to the specialist who's going to strip it and knows where there's a market, but pretty much worthless to someone who is looking for a quick cash sale in the dodgy pub or a pawn shop, the person looking for a bike to ride for a laugh or because they missed the bus, won't care if it's worth £100 or £5,000.
There's plenty of anecdote to back this up, stories of garages broken into and the cheaper bikes taken, unusual bikes stolen and soon recovered. Then on the opposite side bikes destroyed in the theft because of the value of components.
All my bikes would be expensive to replace, they're all touring bikes, used daily, sometimes parked for hours, decent locks, insured. I haven't had a bike stolen for twenty years and that was a cheap hack. I'm not going to base any bike choice on it's appeal to thieves, because I wouldn't know what that is.

That’s an angle (the variability of thieves) that hadn’t been foremost in my mind, yet I can see that it’s very valid. There’s the things that you know you don’t know and then there’s the things that you don’t know you know, etc. At best all one can do it to try to load the odds in your own favour and doing so against a mix of unknowns is both difficult and un-guaranteed to give the desired results; that said I still think it best to try and am pretty sure that typically it rewards effort.

I suspect that that some bikes draw both casual and target bike thieves towards them whilst other bikes don’t particularly attract at all, they might even go unobserved. Of course where one leaves one’s bike is a whole other issue that is equally valid, and caution on where one parks can load the dice in one’s favour too.

[peetee]

For 7 years I used to ride a Geoffrey Butler road framed bike into Southampton and lock it up beside a road in full view of the passing public. It was never tampered with. I had covered the frame in a thick and patchy mess of yellow Hammerite and reflective patches so it looked a proper ugly duckling but was fully functioning and totally reliable transport.

[pjclinch]

A Streetmachine recumbent. It's a very nice tourer and would cost a lot to replace but is quite niche, to the point of most people not being sure if they can even ride it.

Pete.

[Grandad]

In the 1960s I used to commute into Wolverhampton on a fixed wheel trike conversion, leaving it in a town centre open air car park. Only one attempt to steal it and it was abandoned about a hundred yards from where I had left it.

[eileithyia]

I had a resprayed, unmarked, and downgraded Dawes Super Galaxy.... I was using as my '2nd bike', One day I was parking outside Coventry Railway Station ticket office, when a bit of a street urchin.... turned up and asked if i was going on a train somewhere and informed me that 'that's a good bike that is and if you leave it there someone will nick it'. I pointed I was only going into the office, that it was locked and I would be watching it..... whilst also wondering how such a youngster could possibly just how good a bike it was. So you never know what knowledge a potential bike thief might have.

[Psamathe]

These days I have the impression that "not worth nicking" is in effect "has no battery assist" - at least from what others have been saying and the experiences of campsites and bike theft in Germany.

Ian

[Vorpal]

A late club mate had a stable of custom built frames, all 'sloppily' spray painted matte black (over a good base). He used cheap locks & old, raggedy pannier bags with Tesco carrier bags as liners.

The only indication of a decent bike under all that was the Brooks saddle, but when he parked, the saddle was normally covered with another plastic carrier bag.

Even most knowledgeable thieves would have been unlikely to identify anything other than an old-fashioned style tourer, ugly spray painted.

[gaz]

.

[Psamathe]

A late club mate had a stable of custom built frames, all 'sloppily' spray painted matte black (over a good base). He used cheap locks & old, raggedy pannier bags with Tesco carrier bags as liners. :lol:

The only indication of a decent bike under all that was the Brooks saddle, but when he parked, the saddle was normally covered with another plastic carrier bag.

Even most knowledgeable thieves would have been unlikely to identify anything other than an old-fashioned style tourer, ugly spray painted.

What about components. eg a really good frame (however badly painted) would often have brakes, shifters, etc. to match the quality/standard of the frame. Given how my understanding is a lot of stolen bikes broken for parts such thieves would quickly recognise better quality brakes, shifters, etc.

Ian