I've had two incidents, both very minor and nothing lost or damaged. These were both roughly 10 years ago.
1. In Iowa on a cross country ride on a '95 Honda Shadow, someone fiddled with the bike. When I came out in the morning I could tell there was something different about it. Headed out, and noticed I was getting really good mileage (used the "A" odo as the gas gauge, Shadow had a 3.4 gallon tank and a small reserve). Leaned down to check the reserve lever and was on reserve. Switched back and the bike died. Back to reserve, and carefully back to find a gas station.
2. At Wounded Knee, SD, I pulled in where the battle was and read the displays. Afterwards, hiked up the hill to the cemetery and was out of sight of the bike. A few minutes later a young kid came up and started explaining the battle from the Sioux perspective. When I returned to the bike, all the pockets on the T-bag were unzipped. Nothing taken, just a curious kid.
As for motels, I try for a downstairs room where I can park the bike out front. A few times I've parked under the front awnings, some motels like that as bikes seem to attract other bikes but others do not. I usually stay at Motel 6 type places or, preferably, mom-and-pop type. I've had mixed results at the foreign owned and operated motels.
Even got a 10% discount once for being on a motorcycle as I was too young then for ARRP. I've even been told where to park to get the bike out of the overnight rain, like under an eave or under a covered walkway.
In my opinion, bikes are no longer such a novelty that people check them out or mess with them. We're just part of the scenery, and since no one leaves valuables on bike overnight there is no use in looking.
