Bike theft is sill a major problem. I had a jerk try and bang down my door with a rock for an hour or so. He was darn quick at running away. The cops won't stick their neck out for a bike. You get caught in this dichotomy in my town (ignorant central) where the middle class thinks bikes are heavy and you just can't drive and the the poor or addicted are killing you for lead tricycles in hopes of finding titanium skewers or something. The national Bike Registry says that there is a 50% chance that you will have your bike stolen if you are a college kid. They have the best statistics on bike theft and actually explain why it is such a problem. This being because of the drug trade trades with 3rd world countries which use bikes (eg. heroin and china). The problem is that bike theft has led to many financial problems and therefore I have been getting little sleep. this makes you seem incompetant which feeds the middle classes impression that you are just some bum or something. They even get more upity and self -righteous about killing you, since they figure that you must be scum to bike. The problem i have is that I crapped up my bike with stickers and paint and ditched wearing lycra to not scream "yuppie" from my appearance. there is such racial hostility here, that you get all kinds of dung just for riding. I think this town suffers from a all to heavy car dependence and false midwestern pride in "practicality." The truth is social programs are being cut to fund the wider roads urban sprawl mandates.
We ranked 4th in the country in urban sprawl. Trust me, I am moving out of this town if it is the last thing I do.
http://www.nationalbikeregistry.com