Originally Posted by
BarracksSi
Maybe. I was at my LBS when a twentysomething kid and his dad came in for a new wheel for his rusty beater bike. The old wheel hadn't broken -- it had gotten stolen. He had gotten that bike exactly for the reasons you describe, that it would be ignored because it's so old and crappy-looking.
Thieves will take anything, especially if it results in an operable bike somewhere else.
+1
A bike locked to the same pole as mine (a totally crappy old Russian beater) was recently stolen. Mine expensive bike was untouched. Mine had a top of the line U-lock, the beater had a flimsy cable lock.