Originally Posted by
Giant Squid
hmm, I have no idea how my dad got a hold of it then. Since I know he never went to Palo Alto just to buy it, I can only assume he got it used somewhere. Is there any way to figure out the exact year of the bike? Or what parts it was originally equipped with so I know if whats on it now is original. As far as I know my dad never changed the parts on it since he was never huge in to bicycle racing/riding and only really got it so he could go riding with my mom.
He probably bought it through the Palo Alto catalog. You can probably roughly figure out the year through the component date codes. It may have been sold as a frameset, or may have been sold as a complete bike.
Since you're bringing it to college, you might as well know that colleges are bike theft hotbeds. If you don't buy the best u-lock on the market, and use it properly every single time, it will be stolen. If you keep it locked outside at night, it will be stolen. If you ever slip up on security while you're drunk or tired or just feeling lazy, you will one day in the future be talking about the Palo Alto bike that was stolen from you when you were in college.
If you want to minimize the risk of theft, save the Palo Alto for those days when you want to ride a nice bike, and use a less desirable beater bike for your "oops, I forgot to lock my bike" or "oops, I left my bike outside when I was drunk" campus bike. Seriously. At a minimum, bring it in to your room with you (and lock it to something solid in your room). Every. Single. Night.