If you're counting materials as well something custom Ti or carbon from moots or calfee.

Steel, has to be custom richard sachs. The godfather of custom frames.
What you can't buy is the time you'll be waiting for a frameset from him. That's if you manage to get a spot on his list.

There was a very nice used Waterford fixed gear on ebay a few month ago. The price seemed very reasonable - no longer listed so I assume it was sold.

If he is the Godfather then what about Albert Eisetraut? and of course Oscar Waystn who taught Al? Granted I will admit Richie is still alive where as Albert and Oscar have long since passed. ATMO!

It's a title that gets passed on!

How about Firefly?

They do some IGH and eccentric bottom bracket stuff, mostly for utility bikes and not strictly fixed gear road or track bikes but man, those things are beautiful.


-Tim-

Nobilette

Nobilette Cycles

That Nobilette 650 Randonneur build...

^That Waterford is pretty.

This guy is doing some original stuff.

Half of this lug is a lug, on the down tube, but the other half vanishes into the head tube in a filet. And the fork crown and blades are blended to become one single piece.







Don't need to say much about this puppy...








or this one either....

The folks at Victoire in France would build you a very expensive frame for suuuurre: https://www.victoire-cycles.com/en/o...re-virage.html

I bet the Firefly folks would make a fixed gear road bike. I am so desperate for one of their bikes but alas I want an all-road bike rather than a fixed gear though I would take a fixed gear if possible.

Why not get an all-road fixed-gear? Around here, at least, the BEST fixed-gear rides are all-road, taking in modern pavement, bumpy chipseal, hardpacked dirt and gravel roads.

I would but I want to do a geared bike with Di2 and more clearance and thru axles and finding fixed hubs that are 142x12 thru axle compatible is tough. I have a Cinelli Mash Work frame that is SS/FG with 700x38 tires that can handle that task.

Pardon my lack of knowledge... What separates an all-road fixed gear from the rest of the pack? The riding conditions you mentioned sound like my ideal ride. So I want to make sure I pursue the ideal bike.

One of my favorite pictures from the site. Along with this one:



I'd pair those 2 to a custom build

Actually, I'm not that big on lugs. Especially the really ornate ones. Just not my bag, too fancy. But I absolutely admire the imagination and originality of his tweaks. And you gotta salute that level of craftsmanship and attention to detail. That seamless fork top is gorgeous.

Clearance for wide(r) tires is most if not all of the difference.

You can get into type of brakes and then into how the cables or hoses route and so forth, comfort/endurance vs race geometry and a whole bunch of other details. At the end of the day however, gravel and dirt require tires wider than 28's to be really enjoyable.


-Tim-

For those of you who may be interested, I’ve uploaded some current pics of my 1983 Mark Nobilette custom road racing frameset with its recently updated cockpit to make it into a comfortable touring bike. The paint was redone by CyclArt of California, and I never bothered to get new decals from Mark.

https://m.imgur.com/a/FSNC5

That bike rules.

Question - if you are going for an ideal road fix gear, why make flipping wheels harder than it needs to be? Track ends belong on the track. Front and down opening dropouts rule. Anybody not willing to make a road fix gear frame without doesn't get my dollars. I don't care how nice the rest is.

Ben

While I don't wholly disagree, I find myself never flipping my wheels except in the shop so it really doesn't bother me so much. I guess on some longer rides I would do it more but at that point I wouldn't mind a nice little break to sit down and flip over a wheel and maybe eat and drink something.

I'm still new to bikes in general, and more so to fixed gears. Good thing they are simpler than the AL geared road bike I started on. Much shallower learning curve so far. Still, I have only just recently heard of the "front and down" dropouts. Can you clear this up for me? Certain dropouts, like on a standard new road bike, which I believe are normally called "vertical" aren't suited for fixed gear, right? Or are those the same "front and out" ones you're speaking of?

And when you say flipping wheels, do you mean using a rear hub that has two different cogs or freewheels, or is there another reason to flip the wheel that I don't know about?

What [MENTION=392125]79pmooney[/MENTION] is referring to are old style road dropouts, which face forward and slope down slightly to match the angle of the rear brake mounting bolt, so the brake pads don’t need to be readjusted when the wheel is moved in the dropout. They were replaced in the 1980s with vertical dropouts, because there was no need with a derailleur to move the wheel to adjust chain tension and vertical dropouts secured the wheel much better. You will still see these semi-horizontal dropouts on some multi-purpose frames the are used both as multi-speed and single speed. My Salsa Casseroll is set up that way. Compared to track dropouts, they also have the advantage of making wheel removal much easier with a full fender. So, if you pay to have a custom built frame, then you might as well have the builder use them instead of track dropouts if you intend on having a rear brake and/or a rear fender. Otherwise, track dropouts work just as well.

No one ever actually flips their wheel on the road. If you were going to have a dedicated SS road frame custom built, then yeah you'd probably want to get forward facing dropouts. However, no one ever gets custom built dedicated SS road frames built either.

Well, not unless they are named [MENTION=392125]79pmooney[/MENTION]