Great Lakes - Metro Detroit Area Bike Theft

There's a lot of things that suck about biking in the burbs, but one thing is that I don't worry too much about my bike getting stolen. I think most of the suburbanites would be embarrassed to steal it. If I have a lock, any lock on my bike I don't even think twice about it. I even took an old chain and wrapped it around my bike and the bike rack with no lock. Anyone else have trouble with bike theft in the burbs? BTW BMXs get lifted all the time, but mostly not by people selling them on craigslist but by kids showing them off to their friends.

I agree. while there are a few rather random cases of bike theft in my area that I know of, those are just random opportunistic joyriders. That's likely to happen if you leave a $1000 bike sitting in front of an ice cream shop with no lock though. Mostly it is the BMX bikes and things like that. When I was younger a kid down the street from me had a Mongoose that was top of the line at that time. He bragged and bragged and made fun of everyone else's bikes until one night someone took it from his front lawn. He got it back, but was never able to ride it again... that's most of the bike theft I hear about here in suburbia.

In Grosse Pointe, we have a significant problem withe bike theft. We're right on the border of Detroit, and we often get three kids riding in from the city on two bikes and riding out with three. Very, very, very common. I've witnessed it myself on many occassions.

Up at school (michigan tech in the northern UP) Nice bikes do get lifted every once in a while. One of my buddies just emailed our cycling email list saying he go his new haro park bike ganked. However, most of the time, for commuting and such, I will ride a crappy bike. My road bike stays in my room until I ride it.