Originally Posted by kurremkarm
People sometimes leave their heavy u-locks at work instead of toting them back and forth everyday. Put the u-lock inside the rear triangle and they won't steal your bike or your tire. As for painting it? Do you like it the way it looks now? If so, screw em, it's your bike, why deny yourself the pleasure of a nice looking bike-- if you do the bad guys already win.
I think right now, I have decided that I will put some stickers and decals on it. I am not much of a sticker person, but I would like to personalize this thing a little bit instead of keeping it looking "just off the showroom floor".
I will probably end up painting it once the warm weather comes around. I kind of look at this as a choice between "do I ride a bike that looks new and I really like, or do I ride nothing at all when it gets stolen" I think I am going to take the lesser of two evils and crap it up a bit, then in the spring REALLY cusomize it to my personality (and probably end up replacing some worn out parts at the same time)
I am also taking some of MKRG's advice and if I KNOW i will end up at a seedy bar, I am going to ride the beater bike there....unfortunatly, most trips around start out as just riding around visiting friends.
we will see