I felt the same way. Then I found out Raleigh splined their cogs and voila, new wheel set.

There seems to be a little bit of disagreement about skidding, so its your call. I do it because its fun, and I don't mind buying cheap tires de temps en temps. I can see how a lot of people would rather not. Since you definitely should run a front brake, you won't have to ever learn how to skid.

I suggest you go hardcore with your fixed gear. Put a pretty tall ratio (85-90 gi) and just do laps on huge hills. Come race time, just ****ing destroy everyone in climbing.