Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
Lock a $1000+ bike with nice accessories up (lights, panniers, brooks saddle, nice groupset etc...) to go to a movie for a couple of hours at a mall or all day while you catch a train or outside a downtown office building... I don't think so. It will either be stolen or stripped.
I commute regularly on my Surly LHT fitted with close to $450 worth of racks and lock it up outside my office building for the day in the middle of the 5th most populous city in the U.S. It's there right now. I also ride it to movies and dinner in the city. I typically remove the small saddle bag and sometimes the lights, but that's it.
I've been locking bikes up in the city for decades. Only place I ever had a bike stolen was from inside my house, while I was home, and awake. Guy took my custom racks along with the LHT they were attached to. Fortunately, he left the GF's and my custom road bike behind.