Originally Posted by
veganbikes
As far as owning a cheap bike because of theft, the only reason to do that is if you haven't got a quality lock and use good locking practices. Plenty of very nice bikes that get locked up outside for long periods that don't get stolen.
If you ride a bike to work, you may not have an option for "good locking practices". I took OP to mean that he has to leave it unattended at a parking lot for 9 hours a day. That's plenty of time even to take out a good lock.
Cheap bikes are damn useful utilitarian objects.