It's pretty unclear if he's lying... but he said he was just pedaling along pretty slowly and suddenly the rear wheel started skidding... he looked down and viola, the tree was in the state it is now. I have no doubt that under the right (or wrong) circumstances that the chain of a fix gear could fall off and get caught in the wrong way to do some damage... but not as casually as his story would indicate right? Typically I'm pretty good about checking the chain tension and making sure everything is in alignment... I live in NYC and ride rather aggressively so I figure the least I can do is know my bike is safe...

Anyways, irrelevant now, the Puch is dead and I need a new frame. As I said, I do kind of favor the style of classic road bikes from the 70-80s... I know there are more ideal frames for fixed gear builds like track frames but I've taken a few for a spin and nothing has been as nice of a ride as my brick ****house steel, steel-framed Puch.