Alright, the wait is over.
I live near Champaign, Illinois, pretty flat over here, just to let you know. I previously had the Lotus set up as a fixed. I bought it that way up in Chicago, and it was great up there. I decided to rebuild it when I moved back down here, and going on a 40 mile bike ride with a 48/16 gearing was a bit, well, annoying.
My first two mile tonight were rough. I haven't ridden in a month, and I was still trying to get used to using gears and coasting occasionally. I'm used to a constant pedal, and that took me a while to get out of.
After that though, WOW. I made it up to the Lake of the Woods bike path, which has curves, ups, downs and straightaways, and had a blast. Rode the full course there and back, at which point I decided that I needed to keep going, and rode through the local forest preserve path, and over to a friends house for a drink.
The wheels, vuelta corsas (purchased from nashbar), feel strong, which is good. My fixed set were Weinmann DP18's with formula hubs, 32h front and rear. These are a vuelta brand (i'm guessing it's really formula) hubs, 20h front, 24h rear. Not going to lie, I bought them for price, not for weight (which I'm not worried about) or any other reason. I've got a 9 spd Ultegra cassette on the back (got it for cheap, and it looks nice on there).
Back to my original question of this thread, how did I run the cables? A set of suntour downtube cable stops. They are curved, and fit against my frame perfectly. So I used a self tapping screw to hold them in. Why did I use a screw as opposed to a bolt through the frame? I had the screws already.
All said, I'm extremely happy. It's a different feel than she used to have. Right now, if I had to pick, I liked her better as a fixed gear, but I'm sure given a few weeks, I'll be happier that I did this. A group ride is in my plans for this week, either tomorrow or saturday morning. Wish me luck.
(note: in the next paycheck or two i'll be getting riding shorts/jersey. This pic was just to show how it fits. Also, I know those are mountain bike pedals/shoes. Money is tight, I'll deal with what I have for now)