1) A friend from NYC told me about these bike the messengers rode that sounded impossible to me. I started asking lots of questions at the LBS.
2) First bike is a Stella conversion.
3) Live in Philadelphia, PA

I know it was 2002 because I was coming home from Spiderman and broke the frame on my road bike. It would be 6+ weeks for the warrantee claim to go through, so I went to the LBS to get a cheap ride in the meantime. I had been asking them about fixed gear bikes for months, they told me it would be perfect for a simple ride while my roadbike got replaced.