Lessen the Chance of Your Bike Getting Stolen

With new bike season already starting it is good idea to insure that your bike is well protected against theft. Every year 3.5 million bikes get stolen in Europe alone so this is no joke! In this instructables I will share small trick on how I made my velocipede less appealing for thieves.

Most stolen bikes will be sold on black markets. Like you guessed new unscratched bikes will go best. But scratched, easily distinguishable bikes are hard to sell and thus won´t get stolen so much. At least in theory.

So to give my bicycle something unique I decided to carve my name on it!

Step 1: Carving

The process was quite simple actually.

First I took my bike to workshop and started sketching what I wanted to carve. Regular pencil worked well.

Then I took a dremel tool with thin carving bit and followed the lines. Later on I refined the letters with thicker bit. Carving on aluminum frame was super easy.

To bring the letters forward and to seal it all from weather I used bright red nail polish. I applied three coats to be sure.

To clean it up I once again took a dremel and used a small plastic brush. If you do this be sure that your brush is soft enough that it does not remove your bike´s layer of paint.

Step 2: The Result

This will definitely not insure that my bike won´t get stolen but I hope that when a thief sees my masterpiece he will reconsider his intentions.
Of course I will still use locks to secure my bicycle.

Cheers!