Originally Posted by
CliffordK
There have been people that have purposely obscured good bikes to make them look like junkers with lousy rattle can paint jobs. I don't know how effective it is, but it does cut down on the value of anything that is painted.
When I first got my new bike every day any where I go people would comment "oh, nice bike there" etc... Got tiresome after a couple months listening. I slapped on a Huffy logo decal covering my bike's original brand name. Guess what? Not a single comment or complement from strangers since. Actually, only time anything was said about it was when my bike was being worked on in my LBS. Said it was a clever idea.
Obscurity does work, I would assume it works to some level on the average thief. However, a pro thief would still recognize bikes even with it covered up by a huffy sticker lol.