Originally Posted by
thumpism
Best practice for you would be to go to the bike racks at a nearby college and look at all the bikes parked there. A lot of college bikes came out of mom and dad's basement or garage. Pretty soon you'll be able to tell from across the street if a bike is worth getting a closer look at.
That probably depends on the campus and the location. At my university in a city that often has lots of old bikes around (Boston), it's pretty rare to see a C&V bike parked at the racks. Mostly it's BSOs and lots of fairly brand new, low-end machines sold by some of the bigger LBSs in the area.