Ways to ugly up/dress down my fixie for commuting?

Triathlon Forum
1

I just got my first fixie for commuting. It is nothing fancy (Bianchi San Jose) but it is nicer than most bikes that I see chained to lampposts, etc downtown. As a result, I’m looking for ways to make it look less appealing to theives without ruining it. I’ve thought about duct taping the main tubes, but think that would leave too much adhesive residue. I could also tape some heating pipe insulation to the tubes, but that would be pretty bulky. Any creative ideas to make it temporarily fugly?

Thanks.

2

Electrical tape peels off pretty nicely, and makes a ride look kind of ghetto.

Most “mods” will be a lot more permanent than you seem to be looking for however… (spray bomb, etc)

3

Thanks. A spray bomb is not out of the question, but I’d like to try and find something less permanent first.

4

I saw a guy the other day with some handle bar tape on his tubes. Rerap your bars and put your old tape on the tubes and then rough it up some, to enhance the feel

5

Hockey tape works too, and has the added benefit of looking ratty pretty quickly. The only issue would be glue residue if you’re concerned about that…

6

Get some foam pipe insulation and cut it to size for the main tubes. Then, wrap it on with silver duct tape. You can get it in almost any width but if you get the wide tape and tear it into long strips and use those, they get ugly fast. The beauty of this method is that it also protects the bike from scratches. Use glass wax on the hubs to make them look grundgy. Distress the handlebar tape. So ugly it will bring back memories of the "Yo mama is so ugly that…"jokes.

7

Go old school and wrap the frame with cut innertubes. Protects the paint, too. Or, buy a crappy bike for commuting :slight_smile:

8

agreed - wrapping the frame and forks with old innertubes is definitely the way to go - they can protect the frame for years - and also look pretty good in a very understated way
.

9

Inner tubes it is. I knew I could count on Slowtwitch for a good McGyver solution. Thanks.