I was building another fixed gear to use as a rain bike- like with fenders and maybe a rack. I'm relocating to a warmer climate and could exist without a car, but there is only so much that can fit in a back pack or bag, and I'll need to ride in all weather. Anyway, the plan was to have one bike set up as minimalist and the other as a maximalist SUV of a bike, if that makes sense. I found a frame- literally- with a nice Reynolds 531 tubeset, but it lacked a fork and headset. Also, while it had the right length top tube, it had an insanely tall steer tube (like I'd need a 25-26 cm steerer on a fork). Forks that long don't exactly grow on trees. Finally, the seat tube could just as well be welded in (I tried putting it in a bench vise and twisting the whole frame, but I was just flexing the frame at that point).

Anyway, I stopped by a bicycle boneyard mentioned on craigslist. To a certain degree, the guy actually knew how much his stuff was worth. I ended up picking up an old Schwinn Prologue with a fork and headset for about $80. It seemed a bit steep, but considering ebaying a fork and headset, paying for shipping, and the headache factor- assuming I didn't need to soak the seat tube with diesel fuel for a month to get the post out, it didn't seem like such a bad deal (fork, headset and shipping could maybe run $50- putting the Schwinn frame in the $30 ballpark).

Anyway, getting away from the word salad of this post, I started thinking- and granted there are a ton a track frame purists here- so let me state my bias: I commute 40 miles round trip by bike. There are some river bluffs along the Mississippi river that I climb. I also like a bottle mount, as it is hot as hell here in the summer. A track frame just isn't going to be comfortable enough for a 40 mile commute.

But anyway- which would you rather have: an old, relatively high end (in its day) road frame that currently costs $50-100 (with its likely paint chips, etc.)- OR - a brand new, bottom of the barrel, no-name tube "track frame" (like a $250 job from chucks, or any of a number of other sources)? If only $150-200 separates old from new, which would you choose?

Or if the road vs. track issue is a hangup, would you rather have a higher end "vintage" track frame or a new low-end track frame- at the same price (for the sake of argument)?