Custom vs Stock for first bike?

[Trek420]

On another note, have either of you gals considered "ugly-fying" your bike to make it less appealing to thieves?

My personal feeling: nooooooooooooo.

Bikes are beautiful. People should see you happily riding and think "wow! I wanna ride!" Lock them, watch 'em, when I ride to work mines at my desk. My bikes are locked now even inside the house. My one and hopefully only experience with bike theft was from my home. Ugly had nothing to do with it. Bike 'nappers are evil.

The one good part was imagining the 6'1" crook riding my 47 cm bike down a steep hill looking like he was on a tricycle.

The good news: more people ride

The bad news: crooks have learned what bikes, even which individual parts have value and they make their own getaway vehicle.

You can't uglify Ultegra etc. They'll just strip it and sell parts on Craigs etc.

Crooks know we uglify bikes to "throw them off". When I see a bike wrapped in tape there are only two reasons for that.

the rider thinks s/he's throwing crooks off by hiding the decals instead it's just screaming "Look! A valuable bike under wraps!" or ....

it's a hot bike you don't want the rider to recognize. Uglify as you will, if that was my bike under there I'd recognize it.

Bikes are beautiful! Love your bike, beautify it, make it an object of desire, do your best to protect it. If it does get stolen then oh well, get another.