Wow I never knew there were that many bigboy track riders. Makes me feel a lot better. Carleton what would be some non-entry steel frames you could recomend, are there any sub $600? I would like to keep the whole bike at $600 or less but if I need to I can go a bit higher... I'm already on top of the burly wheel set as my hubs are gonna be these --> and most likely something of the Deep-V sort. I know there are some other options out there but after about 4k miles including a xcountry ride on the same set of hand built deep-v (still true) I'm kinda loyal.

As far as the bike needing to be double duty, I don't own a car and the track is 10miles away so I want to ride there. Also I'm seldom home (usually on my bike) so going home and switching is less than desirable. I plan on just switching bars and pulling of the brakes.

The reason I asked about the Leader frame is I like its geometry and it's price. However, I just didn't know much about its quality and the whole aluminum thing worried me. The Fuji looks great but at $1000+ for the built bike was a bit more than I'd like. I haven't found just the frame as of yet. People on here seem to hate on Leader, from what I can gather its about them copying a design and the wheel clearance issue. Havent read any quality issues.

Also would a steel or aluminum/carbon fork be better; still offering some of the absorption of carbon to compensate for the aluminum frame but good strength? How is the lateral strength of carbon for those nice steep climbs and hard sprints.