I'm putting together a Plan B bike based on an old Schwinn World frameset equipped with decent quality leftovers from the parts bins. At one time I thought of painting the frame and polishing up all the parts making it look like new, but then I thought "why not leave the faded scratched paint and dull finishes so a casual observer wouldn't give an old worn out Schwinn a second look?".

When I built cars and motorcycles we referred to these as Rats, vehicles that looked like old clunkers but were actually hot mechanically. Lots of fun leaving someone in a new Camaro looking at the taillights of what appeared to be Grandma's 4-door sedan at the stop light a few seconds ago.

I occassional visit freinds who live in higher theft neighborhoods and would like to have a bike that I could take along that wouldn't attract the attention of opportunistic theives. Do you think that a stealth rat would improve my chances of having my bike ignored or are most theives smart enough to spot upgrades even on a subdued ride?