So, used to ride a 68 paramount track bike in the 70's, San Diego. No velo back then, but I grew up in a beach town that had 3-4 miles of concrete boardwalk. We used to put fixed gears on all kinds of bike, even stingrays. It was a very odd thing to do back then, the only time you saw a track bike in a store it was hanging on the wall as a show piece/odditie. The life of a climbing bum took me away from all that for about 15 years. Then, just before I moved to Washington, I picked up an old Rickert track bike and brought it up with me. got stolen after about a year Still, I had my mt bike and we have hundreds of miles of single track in capitol forest, so i forgot all about fixed gear bikes. Recently I've taken to riding alot from may-oct with the GF and her 3 teens. Partly to keep my legs in shape for snowboarding which is my latest(12 yrs) passion. They do a "rails to trails" thing up here, and we all love riding them, a few of them are 10-30 miles long. FLAT! It accured to me a couple weeks ago that a fixed gear would be perfect for them, and better for my legs, mt bikes always feel clunky to me on paved. Imaginr my surprise when I did a search on track bikes and found a huge culture of SS/fixed gear had exploded Kinda cool, really. So, rather then buy a bunch of tools(mine are long gone) and start from scratch, I decided to get a Jamis Sputnik, which I'm going to order today, I'm freakin giddy! Sorry if I sound like an old fart telling war stories( well ok, I am an old fart!) but something has been rekindled in my soul.As much as I love climbing, the torn rotator cuffs, blown tendons, torn knee cartilage, etc...make me feel the years. Snowboarding made me feel young again( was an avid surfer back in the day) and I expect get back on a "fixie" as they are now called will do the same. Long winded, sappy ****led -gook rant OFF!