Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Surly Fixxer question

I've got a 700c rear wheel that I took from the mid-80s Bianchi road bike I recently acquired. It's got a Shimano 600 cassette freehub laced to a Mavic Open Pro 4CD rim. My question is this... should I bother with getting the Surly Fixxer (is it even compatible with the Shimano 600?) or should I just buy a new flip/flop hub and spokes and rebuild it myself?

Thanks!

James

For the price of the fixxer (or not much more) you can build a new rear wheel. I built a suzue flip laced to a ma3 for about 70$. I would say build the new wheel and save the old wheel for a spare. Spare wheels are darn handy things to have around.

Chris

Yeah rebuilding a wheel isn't hard with the right equipment, cutting the spokes to the right length is your biggest challenge, but just figure out the length you need and your LBS should have a good spoke cutter and get a few extras incase you bend some during the build or drop one into the blackhole that is your work areas floor (every work area has a blackhole). The rim might be a bit tired if its 20 years old so maybe get a new rim while you're at it, but if it still looks good just reuse it and get new spokes and nipples, and a new flip flop hub maybe.

Thanks for the replies Seely and Cynical. I'm gonna forego the Surly Fixxer and attempt to rebuild the wheel myself. THis is where I have more questions. I was speaking to my LBS near work yesterday. This is the store that sold me a pair of old road bars and an 1" quill stem for pretty cheap. They also were able to hook me up with a used pair of barend brake levers from a guy who just got sponsored by Profile. Very SS and track friendly. My concern though is what one of the shop guys told me. I asked about them building me a fixed rear wheel around my Mavic Open Pro 4CD rim. He said since my dropout spacing was 126mm that I should go with a 135mm hub and respace the dropouts rather than a 120mm because the axle would be too short. That didn't seem right to me as I believe you can just respace the 120mm hub to fit the 126mm spacing. Do I even need to replace the axle? Am I correct or have I been reading things wrong? As mentioned earlier, I'm thinking of building the wheel myself with a Surly New rear flipflip hub and black DT double butted spokes...sound good? I'm also in the process of converting my converted SS rear wheel into a fixed with a 14T Surly track cog and a BB lockring. The Loctite directions say to let it set 24 hours. Can I ride it sooner or will I **** things up? Thanks in advance!

One more question...what are some good online sources for fixed gear stuff in terms of good prices, selection, shipping speed etc. I've been looking at Harris Cyclery, Webcyclery, Chucksbikes, a couple of NYC stores online. Thanks again!