Besides beach cruisers, it seems like SS/FG's are the second most popular style of bike most people just throw together. Sure, there posts where people take their dad's bike from the 70's, give it a wash and tune-up and start riding it. But, it seems like with Singlespeeds and Fixed Gears, people often go for the cheap route.

Of course there's the opposite also. There are those who ride some very fancy bikes featuring limited edition Cinelli MASH frames and aero wheels that rival the pricetag of high-end road bikes.

My question, is from an economics standpoint. It seems like the market for SS/FG is very specialized and nice bikes are the exception, not the norm. As such, if one were ever to sell such a bike, he'd be face with a much larger challenge than someone selling say a high-end road bike. Even a used Madone that used to cost thousands is attractive to a person just starting out riding. They can understand the value and pedigree of the bike, see the high price tag, and see that they are getting a high-end bike for a relatively cheap bike.

Given the demographic of a FG rider, say one starting out, would they be likely to drop that kind of money on a used bike that was originally $2500 new? Even at half off ($1250), I imagine would be hard to swallow for a typical FG rider.

I am asking this question from the perspective of someone who did build a middle-high end SS/FG (Sugino 75's all around, for instance). I wonder if I should have gone for an IRO or *gasp* even a Republic at a much lower cost.

*I just used arbitrary prices to make a point; don't ding me on them.