Making your bike theft-resistant

I don't think it seems odd at all; most bikes you own you end up selling... Unless you have a massive garage. All purchases are really investments, and if you buy things that don't depreciate (like good bicycles) you can recover most of the initial cost when you're ready to move on.

He wants to make a nice bike theft resistant...

Maybe, but he doesn't actually say that, everyone's just inferred it. My inference was that he wanted to mask the components to keep them nice and shiny so that the resale value was higher. For example, you'll get a better price for a bike if the paintwork's not chipped.

This does beg the question, why buy a bike you plan to sell? Seems odd.

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy a nice item and recoup a high percentage of the cost through a high resale value than it is to buy a crappy item (or several, if they won't last as long and so have to be replaced) and not be able to recoup anything, since it's worth basically nothing 2nd hand. I saw some calculations once which showed that it's ultimately cheaper to buy a BMW for about £25,000 than it is to buy a fairly anonymous Japanese saloon for about £15,000.

Maybe, but he doesn't actually say that, everyone's just inferred it. My inference was that he wanted to mask the components to keep them nice and shiny so that the resale value was higher. For example, you'll get a better price for a bike if the paintwork's not chipped.

I think it's a bit of both actually; I'd like to mask it primarily so that it isn't stolen or vandalised, and the protection wouldn't hurt either. The main thing for me is to have a bike that is a joy to ride for a few years without having to worry about where I lock it up. When I'm ready to move on, I'd like to have a head start on the cash for my next bike (or even go for an all out swap).

Also, I want to do my bit to limit the production of low quality bicycles that don't push the cycling industry to drive down prices and increase performance of what is deemed to be on the "premium quality" end of the product range. Anyway, I'm getting a bit sidetracked... It seems I might try electrical tape with a few tyre tubes.

Sometimes it's cheaper to buy a nice item and recoup a high percentage of the cost through a high resale value than it is to buy a crappy item (or several, if they won't last as long and so have to be replaced) and not be able to recoup anything, since it's worth basically nothing 2nd hand. I saw some calculations once which showed that it's ultimately cheaper to buy a BMW for about £25,000 than it is to buy a fairly anonymous Japanese saloon for about £15,000.

You want a brompton (assuming you've out grown out of islabikes) as they hold their value best out of any bike.

I know a couple of people who have made money by buying a brompton on their cycle to work scheme and selling the bike as soon as they own it at the end of the scheme.

It will also remove the need to lock the bike up outside.

But to the original question, the vast majority of theft is opportunism rather than people stealing shiney bikes, get three different locks (d-lock, chain and alarm) so a thief will need more than one type of tool to defeat them, and replace all the bolts with something like atomic22... Much more effective than security through obscurity.

My mate wrapped his bike in electrical tape, to me it just looks like a nice bike covered in tape now...

With the whole 'bb glued in allen key slot' thing, what about when YOU want to take the bike apart?

Electrical tape can be risky, I suppose depends on the type, but I've had loads of cruddy adhesive residue left over once.

Self-sealing silicone tape (or similar, I might be forgetting) was recommended to me on here, so it sticks to itself not the bike

Nail polish.

Cover it with plastic dinosaurs and ocelot fur.