Originally Posted by ColonelSanders

I'm not sure that you would be spared from a bike thief, just by going to a $100 cheaper bike, but you may be denying yourself a bike that suits you better.

If you get something like the top D-Locks/U-Locks from Abus or Kryptonite, a bike thief is going to need an angle grinder to be able to steal your bike, and will have to spend quite a while making one hell of a racket and fireworks show from sparks, to get it.

I suspect that literally all of the bikes stolen from Universities, have had mediocre to middling bike locks on them.