The reason I don't have stickers is not because of theft. I just prefer the look of it. I am very aware what it cost me, and I don't leave the bike at, say, stations, or whatever. I do lock it to something whenever I have to go inside somewhere, and it is even locked in our basement. Theft of cargo bikes is not really rare around here. Even cheap ones.

I am game to see it all, I love titanium and am slowly amassing a collection of Ti bikes 2 MTBs and 1 road. It is pouring here as well so I can understand. Hopefully the rain will stop and pictures can ensue.

Okay, I will see what I can do (dark now), but I should be able to take some tomorrow - hopefully not raining and in daylight.

Daylight is always nice...no rush though as I am out of town and probably won't be on bike forums for a bit.

Super!

This kind of stuff isn't common, but it does happen. I have a friend who had a $10k+ bike stolen from a race. It was leaned up against a railing and he was standing about 10 feet away talking with other racers, when someone walked/rode off with it. The thief could've taken dozens of other bikes, but specifically targeted that one.

It showed up at a local shop a few months later. The guy was arrested as he was trying to ship the bike to a buyer in California.

There was also a rash of LBS break ins in my area a few years back and the thieves were specifically targeting high end road bikes. They hit at least a dozen different shops and would only steal 4-5 select bikes at a time.

Not every bike thief is a junkie looking to turn and burn something for a few bucks.

etch in the words "BSO Wal-Mart" on the group set parts after the original advertising descriptors are removed. May even find someone tossing some spare change at the bicycle, out of sympathy...

I don't care that that bike is plastered with Cannondale logos, I absolutely love the primer gray / neon orange color combo

Makes me visible in the winter in the woods when the trees/shrubs are bare.

No. I just ride.

Can't imagine caring enough to spend time defacing a logo. I try to keep my bikes as near to new and original as I can, excluding upgrades. If the upgrades come with logos, oh well.

On the other side, when restoring bikes, people like me actually pay for new decals and stickers to restore the bikes originality.

I have one logo on my bike and that’s more than enough. I like the clean look.

Have zero issue removing all the logos you want. If it makes you happy, that’s what really counts.

From the perspective of being a rolling ‘advert’, I can guarantee you the 99.99% of the general public could care less what kind of bike you ride. All they see is guy on bike, that’s if they are paying attention. So if you feel more secure, or happy being stealth, good on you, but don’t infer that anyone other than those into bikes really could care.

Road & Track once tested a Maserati bicycle. They were further bemused by finding "Campagnolo" written on it in 27 places. Personally, I use a Campy cable guide, to make sure my bike is fast.
One day, a group of Americans were touring the Netherlands, wearing their usual logo-printed club-ride Spandex. An amazed local woman called out "Where are you people from - the Moon?"
My 3-cylinder car was marketed under five different names. I'm thinking of collecting them all, and then snapping the 1 off a 16-Valve emblem too.

bike messengers in NYC were known for making their bikes look as plain as possible to minimize theft. frames sanded down to bare metal tape or innertubes wrapped around the downtube. Never made sense for regular riders as the groupset is the giveaway, messengers tended to be fixie or singlespeed when I lived there.

This is the very reason my Rohloff hub is not red but black instead. I prefer the red version, but I figure that I don't want to attract too much attention to the hub.

I don't remove them but prefer a cleaner look. I think it's dumb for Trek to have their name in 6 visible locations on each side.

I do remove the dealership logo from my cars. I consider that free advertising.

Jeff

Love to pull the stickers off cheap semi-aero chinese rims. They look MUCH better. Old classic bikes however need them left alone. Even a badly nicked up 531 decal looks great to me. I flip an occasional vintage bike and offen buy decals for a finishing touch.
As for theft, no one will steal a Free Spirt even if left unlocked in my neighborhood.

On my '89 Cannondale, I thought the lower case name on the top tube was tasteful. But I like the new trend, I think it's about all things "stealth", just like "tactical" has been the buzzword for anything remotely possible to be used by military, from flashlights to sunglasses. Paint it black and suddenly it's "tactical". Many bike commuters have covered names and logos for a long time to try to reduce theft, and it definitely can't hurt, especially since even cheap bikes have aluminum frames these days, but pro thieves know what to look for in the components. But it's also common practice to cover the frame in tape to protect from scratches from leaning against a bike rack. Someone I knew covered the top tube in leather, the seam joined by baseball stitching. Final note: I hated in the '90s that ski gear was not only huge logos (sometimes even on the ski bottoms through clear P-Tex) but hideous bright colors. I much preferred reserved neutral colors that were easy to get everything to match; black, grey, even a classic red goes with many other colors.

Although I think "tactical" can be a thing/reason for some, to me it's just "please, enough with the garish stuff".

I wouldn't own a white bike (no logos) and titanium frame (no logos either) if it was for that "tactical" look. Although I do regret the white bike, it should have been red or orange.

The other side of the coin: in the early '80s, long before tattoos became mandatory permanent fashion accessories, a friend of mine found herself sitting in a coffee shop near a bunch of heavily tattooed students from the nearby Maryland Institute of Art. She said that all the time she was sitting there, they never stopped complaining to each other about outrageous it was that people stared at them everywhere they went.

I wonder whether anyone posting here has a stealth bike plus visible tattoos. It wouldn't actually be logically inconsistent, mark you.

No tattoos here. And I'm not logo-less for "stealth" reasons either. I just think it looks cleaner: larger unbroken surfaces. I did consider at one point to get a sticker that said "Disabled Transport" Or "Handicap Transport", but decided against it because someone might think I was taking the p... pee and kick the bike or something (I'm an amputee, so it wouldn't be a lie).