The Times Cycling Campaign

French Touch has beaten me to it. A fixie skidder's attire is almost impossible to separate on and off the bike and blends in

Oh, I don't know--just look at this fixie-skidder. He should clearly have been wearing blue to blend in.

I don't think I was clear enough; I was talking about buying flashy bikes that are a little too much for purpose. That is what helps keep the interest in theft.
Expensive bikes obviously get nicked, too, and probably yield a fair profit, especially when broken up into parts, but Amsterdam, where a different sort of bike is prevalent, has sky-high rates of bike theft, too. Where there's a legitimate commercial activity, there's a criminal market waiting to develop. With more cycling comes more cycle-related crime, sad to say. Perverse as that sounds, it's actually a symptom of success--which obviously still means that something needs to be done about it.