Montreal is definately the bike theft capital of Canada and although I sell a lot of U-locks to people buying hybrids up to $600, I don`t recommend them to anyone buying anything over $800.

The logic is pretty straight forward. Here you can`t park an expensive bike outside for an extended period of time without parts being stripped off it - locked or not. Some people are just creeps. So just for a stop-off at the store - a solid cable lock is good enough and thats all I own myself.

An expensive machine needs to be kept inside in a secure environment. Some people have reported expensive bikes stolen from third story balconies with no outside staircase! An inexpensive bike is rarely worth the bother of stripping for parts and a good U-lock will discourage theft of the whole bike. But not vandalism if some idiot decides that if they can`t have it - you can`t either.

And the real issue is that most bike owners don`t record their own serial numbers so even when a police report is filed - its impossible to identify stolen bikes and convict thieves. Whats it like where you live?

Would you be able to provide the police and your insurance company with the serial numbers of your bikes?