Originally Posted by rustystrings61

My first fixed-gear was a conversion built on a c.1960 Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix 21 years ago. Since then I've built many conversions, owned and sold a 1st generation Bianchi Eco-Pista, and ordered a custom Mercian road fixed-gear. Early on I decided that since I don't live anywhere near a track and have zero desire to race, I would be better off borrowing from old British club cyclists' practices in bike setup and run more road-oriented frames.

My Mercian is all-out British club bike design, 72-degree parallel head and seat angles, lugs, Reynolds 531, long chainstays, room for mudguards, usually with a big ol' Carradice saddlebag. I've done centuries and cross-state rides on it as well as multi-surface long-distance rides with 28 mm tires over dirt, gravel, asphalt and chipseal. It handles the far very well and the fast about as well as I can manage to make it go.

My conversion, built on a '71 Gitane, has the usual French geometry for 60 cm bikes, 73 head, 72 seat, with metric gauge 531, lugs, a shorter wheelbase that is still long by current standards, designed for long days in the saddle covering a lot of ground. It was built relatively cheaply with parts from the bin and a few carefully sought-out components. Very little cash went into it, mostly scavenging - the real deal was the frameset for $50 and trading an old dynohub front wheel for the Kogswell fixed/fixed & Mavic MA3 wheelset.

I blame the late Sheldon Brown. I was intrigued by the stripped-down experience of riding fixed, and I read all those testimonials of those who had gone over to the fixed side. Since 1999 I've ridden more than half of my total mileage on fixed-gear or single-speed bikes.