I know about the plastic thing and Doc is right, its not only an Italian immigrant thing. My mom (her mom was an immigrant from Poland) used to put plastic on the sofas, have the plastic runners on the carpet and even had plastic covers on the vinyl seats of her car. I remember it well. Sitting in the sun after several years the plastic in the car was trashed (cracked, brown marks, torn from the heat of the summer sun, etc), but the seats looked good as new when we took the plastic off of the car seats. There's just something about covering a man-made material with another man-made material that seems to me like what's the point?

Regarding that bike, I give it two things. Its probably warm in the winter and you will surely get attention. It does stand out. Going to a large bike rally it would be easy to find your bike.