I would say that is indeed one of the things I noticed, most bikes did have a chain guard and many did have a full case. In fact, I saw few bikes with a bare chain and if I did it was obvious some damage resulted in that condition.

Another thing, many bike were not locked and if locked they were locked with a minimal, cheap cable lock. I gather there are so many bikes and so many are so similar that a thief would be bored with it. I mean why choose one black step through bike with fenders and rack and lights vs another similar black step through bike with fenders and rack and lights? Yes, I did see bikes locked but largely it was not heavy locks and was not consistent. I was waiting on my ride watching cyclist move by and I saw a business man with briefcase come out of an office complex in a suit and tie and a long overcoat throw his briefcase on the rear rack and bungee it and push it off the bike rack, it was not locked, sitting right on the sidewalk.

I have visited many cities in America such as Portland where there is an established cycling culture and there is simply no comparison to the numbers of bikes I saw in Germany. Here and there there is a high density but in the cities I visited bike traffic was dense everywhere.

Look, I am sure there are sporting cyclists such as myself in Germany but I did not see any and as I said, in the three nice bike shops I visited, there just was nothing of that type present. How about this little cutie:



Had I taken a sample of cyclists, I would have found sporting bikes, brakeless fixies, fenderless hybrids powered by Lycra clad engines about as extinct as this fellow: