Originally Posted by isotopesope
van dessel hubs are nice for the price. they're sealed too. scott (xcutterx) has them on his van dessel country road bob. what are the rear dropouts like on your gary fisher? is that a mountain bike then? vertical dropouts won't work for a fixed gear unless you go with a white industries eno eccentric hub. otherwise, you can't get good chain tension. of course, if you decide to just go single speed you could get one of those surly chain tensioners if you do have vertical drops. however, i have heard mixed reviews on the effectiveness of those. another thing to consider if you decide to go fixed is your crank length. you don't really want to run super long cranks with a fixed gear bike. sheldon brown's site is a great resource. good luck.
I have semi vertical dropouts on the frame. I checked out the eno hub and after figuring out the currency exchange with shipping, well I am looking for a cheaper way. If I was to run the middle chainring on the front, covert the rear cassette to a s/s by removing the cogs and adding spacers and buy a new chain, would this work for me with minimal hassles? I am fairly mechanically inept and don't want to undertake a project that will require advanced bike skills. Thanks