Wasn't ITV the channel with the show that "proved" that President Kennedy was still alive, living as a captive of Martians who hide out in the deserts of Arizona?

You have three choices if you park your bike: no lock...a cheap lock...an expensive lock. The endless mewing about the fact that (in theory) any lock can be defeated changes nothing. It is a simple choice...no lock...a cheap lock...an expensive lock.

Houston is the crime capital of the South. In the past ten years of talking with regular cyclists and "pro" cyclists (the downtown bike messengers) I've never heard a credible report of anyone having a bike stolen if they were using a top quality u-lock and the "Sheldon Brown" locking method (filling the "U" with the rear wheel and a beefy locking post).

Regardless of the cr@p on ITV or U-Boobs, in the REAL world, crooks walk away from bikes that have the best locks and that are correctly locked up, and target the bikes with cable locks and cheapo Wal-Mart locks and the bikes that are NOT correctly locked up.

Still, the owner has to use good sense. You can not leave a $2,000 bike parked in plain view for eight hours a day, day after day, at the same rack. Eventually, a skilled crook is going to see the bike, figure out he has eight hours to take it, and put in the time and effort to take that bike. You always want to have the cheapest looking, oldest looking bike on the rack, not the newest, shiniest bike on the rack.

The bikes I would leave unattended in downtown Houston each look like they are worth $20 or $40 at a pawnshop (which is how crooks look at a bike..."what will a pawnshop give me for it?") But, each of they rides just as well as a $1,000 bike. So, I can enjoy riding downtown, and I don't have to worry about a crook looking at my bike...it ain't worth looking at.