2007.
1. a friend that I biked with all the time sold me on the simplicity and cheapness of them (as I'd been riding my ****ty trek mountainbike into the ground)
2. my first fixed gear was a conversion and its still the bike I ride
3. I live in Burlington, VT
4. Burlington is a medium sized city with a ton of hills and I decided to ride fixed because its way easier to maintain on the amount of rides and distances I put the thing through (I live right at the bottom of a pretty decent hill, so to go anywhere means going straight up).