Ugly your bike

I’ve never been able to get comfortable with locking my bike to a rack and leaving it unattended. If you have a nice ride, no matter how nice of a lock you have, it always seems like you’re just asking for someone to rip it off or monkey with it. A bike securely-locked but stripped naked to the frame is someone’s really bad day.

The latest trend among bike aficionados here in Minneapolis is camouflage. The tactic is to try and out-ugly everything in sight, making other rides more appealing to the predator. It has the anti-theft advantage of riding a super-crappy, completely undesirable bike, but it’s just a facade. In many instances, layers of duct tape, rust stickers, a nasty fender, and crackled paint are hiding a couple thousand dollars worth of high-performance machine.

MAKE Volume 11 had a comprehensive article on the subject, which is available in an online format. The photo above is from the bikehacks site. They’ve written on the subject a couple of times and have a few useful tips, including an “undo” feature: wrapping the frame in saran wrap before applying stickers and paint.

MAKE V11 – UGLY Your Bike
Ways To Ugly Your Bike
Ugly Your Bike #2: A Case Study

2 Responses to Ugly your bike

Arol on June 18th, 2008 at 10:58 pm said:

> A bike securely-locked but stripped naked to the frame is someone’s really bad day.

So when will all your “my bike is so expensive” Fanboyz finally find some enlightenment and ask to get and only buy parts that are no longer easily detachable?

As it stands now, ease-of-theft actually makes a part more expensive in biking circles (“can change that in 0.5 seconds while still riding downhill at 25mph”) instead of putting such parts firmly where they belong: In the junk bin, because they lack an important quality.

Reply ↓
Jason Striegel on June 19th, 2008 at 8:46 pm said:

> As it stands now, ease-of-theft actually makes a part more expensive in
> biking circles (“can change that in 0.5 seconds while still riding downhill
> at 25mph”)

This is completely untrue. The expensive parts allow you to switch them out while riding uphill.

Reply ↓