My most recent bike was born during the peak of my brokeness this summer. i live in brooklyn and my old bike had gotten stolen and whilst hanging out on my friends roof i found an old road frame just chillin up on the roof. I was really surprised, it was a 1987 dawes eschelon and it weighed almost nothing. A few days later i went to the lbs and appraised new parts to put on the frame. in choosing to make it a single speed, i saved probably a hundred fifty dollars off the bat. From my experience, i've had to replace dereillers a few times due to my riding style (kinda jenky and reckless) and didn't want to have to deal with dereillers, and the added weight from both dereillers, extra gears, larger gear cog, etc. At that point, my bike weighed probably 5-6 pounds and a few months ago i converted it to fixie, simplifying it greatly, getting rid of the brake calipers, levers, etc. I would say the appeal of fixie/ss is the absolute simplicity you get from it. No brake maintenance, dereiller adjustment, puting chain back on when it falls off the crank. so yeah. SIMPLICITY