- bikes are extremely easy to strip for parts and stolen parts are easy to sell for a few bucks (whereas with cars you need a chop shop and many parts have seri

- bikes are extremely easy to strip for parts and stolen parts are easy to sell for a few bucks (whereas with cars you need a chop shop and many parts have serial numbers) - most bike locks are trivial to defeat without any skill whatsoever (if in doubt, bring a bolt cutter) - it's impossible to distinguish a stolen bike from a not stolen bike at a glance, making them easy to transport (contrast this with trying to drive away in a stolen car after you smashed the window and set off the car alarm) - generally bikes are comparatively low value making the immense effort required to attempt to track them down after they are stolen not worth it (contrary to what TV shows might have taught you, the police mostly doesn't spend its time "solving crimes" and they're rarely successful at that, most police work consists of catching crimes in the act (e.g. traffic violations) or arresting people already accused of crimes) - people need money to live and some people need more money to live than others (e.g. addicts) and have few options available to them so theft can be an appealing option So in other words, if you adjust the socioeconomic conditions for a higher crime rate to arise, bike theft will be one of the crimes to increase the most because it's a relatively easy, quick and low-risk way to make a small amount of cash if you're desperate enough to turn to crime to feed your family or drug addiction. I don't want to say the reason bikes get stolen so much is the War on Drugs but in a way the reason bikes get stolen so much is the War on Drugs (in lieu of treating drug addiction as a mental health issue and trying to address the underlying problems causing it).