A dutch women told me once a story, where she but a used bike in Amsterdam and the heroin addict who sold it to her, threaten her to steal it again, if she does not use a heavy lock.
* Where do you buy a ≤20 euro bike?
* Most people on the street have bikes that look to be at least 200 euros new, from what I can tell.
Even in 2011, when I made the mistake of spending £90 for a new bike… well, the pedals came off while riding it due to metal fatigue.
Adjusting for inflation*, I'd expect similar build quality from a bike that "only" cost €200 today.
* hard to do when there is also a currency switch, especially when the exchange rate has changed so much
You get the bike for < 20 Euro and then, presumably, at some point in the future it gets stolen again, but you already got 20 Euros worth of use out of it.
It would take work to remove it cleanly and/or cost money/time to paint over it.
So it's less attractive.
Ps. You'll still need to take care of your 10 k. Bike ofc.
Ps. 2 : engraving isn't done anymore since bike frames got smaller.
(I do not think so, but this probably would make sense)
People in countries where bicycling is not seen as a personality statement generally ride very cheap city bikes around town. Last time I bought one of those in college it cost about 30eur. Is not like in SF where people ride 3000 dollar bikes to work because omg you’re a cyclist now and this is your whole identity.
There is also a growing segment of people who use $5,000–$15,000 cargo/kid carrier bikes as replacements for their cars, which is cool. But I do worry about theft of those increasing. Right now I rarely hear of it, but it seems likely to increase. Even the motors and batteries in them cost thousands alone.
Didn't Amsterdam try that with 'white bikes' in the 1970s?
No, it definitely does not!
750k bike thefts for 17.7m people. So roughly one per 25 people...
It famously has more bicycles than people!