After building up a couple of nice fixies my road-racing buddy convinced me i needed a fast geared bike. Built up a nice mid-late 90's cannondale aluminum frame with just-pre-brifters-age 105 and 600 components. I ride it with a 7-speed group in the rear, downtube shifter, 46t ring up front and no FD, 13-23 cassette on some sweet(way cheap on ebay) tubular wheels . being able to shift and/or coast is sometimes a nice thing, its light and responsive, and i basically ride it like a singlespeed but with 7 gear-ratio options. As an addition to a nice fixed-gear, some sort of 'normal' road bike is a sweet thing to have. I'll get a picture up soon just to show you what hours and hours of scavenging on ebay and surprisingly little money can build you. By the way, OP, i totally agree about the look of most new bikes, and i'm definitely pleased with the way this turned out, asthetically and functionally, though older steel bikes are incredible as well.
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