My wife and I were in Manhattan, New York between Thursday and early today. While strolling about the city, I must have seen 8-10 mountain bikes or road bikes with their almost entire frames wrapped in what appeared to be electrical tape.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is this tape for?? Is it to prevent scratches, marring etc. on the paint, or to possibly make the bike look as ugly as possible to prevent thieves from stealing it??? Anybody know??

God knows what this cyclist are thinking ???

i live in Maryland, an I've seen that too. On the particular bike that I saw, the whole frame was wrapped, and CO2 cartriges were partway wrapped in the tape. This is not just one or two, there was at least three on the seat tube, and another three or four on the top tube.

It was completely blacked out though, with black four-spoke spinergy wheels. The rider too, was blacked out, with a black halter-top/sports-bra thing and black booty shorts, with a black helmet with a black visor covering her face. An odd person...The theory going around out school is that she is either a movie star incognito, or a really fit woman with a horribly scarred face!

The electrical tape could've just been due to the fact that she's a weirdo though, and she just thought that it would look cool

You called it. It's a bike disguise used to thwart bike thieves. It's like a plain brown wrapper so the make / model of the bike can't be determined, also it takes a lot of work to get it unwrapped, another thing bike thieves don't like.

And, it's also a good way to disguise a stolen frame.