"Stealthing" your bike up... any ideas?

claddo

Not long ago, I had my lovely city bike, a Whyte Stirling, stolen. After this, I gave buying a cheaper bike just for town riding and occasional commutes about.... uumm.. 5 seconds thought before obviously rushing off to buy a Boardman Hybrid Pro. (could almost double as a winter trainer I told myself... )

Now I have a flashy city bike back, I'm thinking I would like to tone it down a bit.
Anyone have any ideas/experience beyond throwing on black electrical tap everywhere?...

I'm planning to:
- take off all the stickers
- Put a tatt(ier) old saddle on
- Some kind of black tape (which kind?!?) on the down tube etc..
Its an alu frame/carbon fork.

OR am I just being a bit silly and should sack this whole idea off?
Thanks for any ideas!

drummer_boy

Mud everywhere, except the brakes and drive train :-) They hate mud.

gllewellyn

Asda carrier bag over the saddle when not in use - that always looks nice...

daddy0

Put a bunch of stickers on it then half tear them off.

Change all your screws for rusty looking ones.

Scuff up your bar tape.

Change one of the rims, so you have odd wheels.

chris_bass

If i was you i'd just get a decent lock and leave it somewhere as safe as you can.

failing that paint it white and put police stickers on it.

monkimark

I'd say it would be difficult to stealth it up that much - the shaped tubes, hydraulic discs, shiny components are going to be pretty hard to disguise.
You'll make your shiny new bike look a lot worse for a tiny bit of theft deterrent.

jonomc4

insure it well and lock it up well somewhere safe

zachamuffin

Wrap insulating tape around the frame then run over it with sandpaper...

steviecfb

jonomc4 wrote:

insure it well and lock it up well somewhere safe

Bike thieves will nick anything they can, so stealthing only works if you leave your bike with other apparently-nicer ones with a worse lock than yours.

rolf_f

If you lock it to the same place every day, paint it so it matches where you lock it to and the thieves won't be able to spot it.

Of course, if they accidentally bumped into it and stole it, when you arrived back to pick it up, you wouldn't know it had been stolen yourself.........

claddo

Thanks for (all) the ideas... Rolf included
not sure wether I will go super stealth. You're right that there are more than enough features for such a bike to still stand out.
I think I will do some insulation tape (stem, seatpost, stays); but this will be almost as mush to hide the fact that "cboardman" is written on almost every part of the bike. I feel like an advertising hoarding!

Good riding

Davdandy

Stick a shopping basket on the front.