Camouflage?
 

I am stuck i Guatemala and buying a decent Giant Urban Bike. New bikes are targets here, worse than Chicago. How do you disguise a shiny new frame. I was thinking duct tape might make it look older?
GM
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Electrical tape always cleans up easier later and can look just as ghetto, bigger locks can also be a big difference in keeping your bike.

:)

Adequate lock.

I always recommend to people looking for an urban bike that will be out of sight to go to the co-op and find something that works and is already spray painted and ugly. IF you cannot keep this bike in a secure location or under your watchful eye it will likely get gone if it's anything that can be perceived as decent. Even if the whole bike cannot be stolen due to a "lock" (which we know is bull****), people will still gladly take seats, handlebars, wheels, anything they can turn loose quick and walk with.

I’ve been locking up bikes on the streets of Philadelphia for decades. Nice bikes. The replacement value of my racks on my touring//commuter is around $450. This weekend I did a three day tour in NJ. Never once used my lock. What am I doing right? Or wrong?

Not sure. Have a rabbits foot?

Seriously, I cannot count the number of solitary rusty bike frames you see around Atlanta with a nice lock holding it to the rack or whatever...no other parts present.

I've met a couple fairly serious cyclists in Guatemala.

I think what they did was just never leave it anywhere. Ride from home, finish at home. If chilling at the beach, it's literally right next to you.

I wouldn't lock a bike there.

I am not stupid enough to leave them out over night. And I buy my rabbits without feet.

Move to Chicago.

In Dublin that happens to bikes in broad daylight.

And the rabbits don’t get very far without their feet.

:)

flat black krylon & put some duct tape on your tire(s) for the dead beater look & add rusty chain & cheap lock in hi crime areas :)

:)

$43 kit. Includes iron paint and rust activator. :o

:)

I wouldn't paint it, but the tape thing you could do, just don't cover the whole bike with the stuff or it will look too obvious, and if you cover decals the tape could peel off the decals should you ever remove the tape. Another stunt you could do, after you put some tape on, is to splatter mud all over the bike, if you do that you should wax it really well, buff that wax, then splatter the mud. Just keep the rims or the rotors (depending on what type of brakes you have) covered, and the chain and derailleurs covered and go to town with a mud slinging contest. When you get done with the mud your bike will look like a piece of schit that should be ignored.

As far as locks go, I would get either a Hiplok DX D lock, it costs around $90 and only weighs 2.4 pounds; or get a Abus Bordo Granit X Plus 6500, this is a folding lock so it's not so bulky to carry around like the first lock I mentioned, it cost more though at around $105 on Amazon, and it weighs a bit more at 3.8 pounds, but being that it has folding arms it can lock the bike up in more versatile positions vs a D lock. There are better locks than those that I mentioned but the weight goes up a lot to 5 pounds to as much as 13 pounds! and of course the price goes up as well, but a good medium duty lock like the ones I mentioned will be adequate without feeling like you're carrying an extra bike around town.

use old tubes for wrap, comes off better later.