Interesting resurrected thread. For those that don't know, I'm a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. I advise people all the time about stuff like this. First, steel wool or Brillo pads in openings that you don't want mice to pass thru is recommended because they are unable to chew through it. Rodents dislike the smell of peppermint, so rags with peppermint oil is a good thing to place around. Second, yes, rodents love the safety and warmth of a car engine or house attic and they will chew wires in those places that they are making their home but the odds of them randomly chewing bike wires would be slim. And finally...and this is huge....DO NOT use poison!! God put predators on this earth to kill prey and all poisoning does is kill those predators, which will in the end, compound the problem. I'm talking about foxes, owls, hawks, eagles, bobcats, etc. (and even dogs and cats) dying from second hand poisoning because they were just doing what they were put on this planet to do. Ingesting poison causes the need to go out searching for water and catching prey that is slowly and painfully dying from poison is an easy target for predators. I see the horrible death that second hand poisoning causes in wildlife all the time, and if you don't care about wildlife, I can tell you about the heart-wrenching deaths of a friend's 2 dogs.