getting on the bike, seriously, riding a fixed gear isnt hard.

not at 1st. fixed is very hard in the beginning cuz of transition. once you get the hang it becomes almost second nature

Word.

^^^
for the win

step one, get on bike

step two, ride bike, do not stop pedaling

step three, do not corner so hard

step four, resist pedals to stop

...this is not hard to me I guess as much as it is slightly awkward, but it is not "difficult"

The first time I rode it was easy, I thought it'd be a big pain to stop coasting but now I couldn't imagine coasting for no reason at all.

The 48x16 Pistas come with is a bit of a bear on hills at about 80 gear inches. I'd drop it to a 48x17 at least or switch the chainring to something like a 45/46/47 to get more skid patches near 70 inches. I tried riding the 48x16 for a week and it was murderous on hills-- I lived in Potrero Hill at the time. Other than that, they're pretty good bikes to start out with. I ended up replacing everything save the headset and frame with aftermarket parts and it's a dream to ride.

My bareknuckle should be ready to roll in a few days assuming it gets back from paint-- if you want a '06 Pista with a 36h/Pro Max wheelset, Sugino 75s, and other good stuff, send me a PM, I'll let it go for a fair price.

I have yet to find a good technical resource for assembling a fixed gear bike, I find this to be hard

hmm, sheldonbrown, the effing search function, google, the resource thread...wtf dude

At the risk of sound like somebody's mom, since it hasn't been stated explicitly in this thread, be sure to run a front brake. You'll learn to brake with your legs, but that takes some practice, and SF is not the place to go brakeless when you start. Get comfy before deciding whether you're adventurous enough to skip the brake with those hills.

This might sound stupid, but the hardest thing I found about riding fixes was not the coasting thing - it was getting my second foot into the freaking pedal! It turns out I lock in with the left foot, push off and then COAST to get the right foot locked in. This IS NOT an option on a fixed gear, so I had to play a game of tag with the right pedal (while trying not to fall down or hit something) until I got secured. It was d@mn humiliating when I started, but I got better over time and can now ride the simplest bike out there. Realizing the stopping is different can be scary as well, but it only took me one time to figure that out.

i had a bit of trouble with this at first, but oddly now I have more trouble locking in on a freewheel bike because I expect the pedal to be moving and have the right resistance and its all floppy

I have been riding fixed for about a month now. Maybe a dozen times so far I have forgotten about not coasting, but the bike reminds me real quick that I have to keep pedaling.
Today I started to try to coast as I went to shoot an outward snot rocket.

This took awhile for me to get comfortable. I find it easiest to start with my lead foot a quarter turn past 12 o'clock. Pedal rotation is predictably slow, allowing a more graceful flip of the other pedal to insert your other foot. Or, and this is my preferred way, if I'm wearing my favorite walking shoes, there's the perfect area of the tread on my shoes that meets with that little extension on the underside of the pedal; I pedal with the foot on the underside for awhile and get to a certain cadence where my foot naturally and easily just flips the pedal over, placing my shoe perfectly in the cage. It happens without a break in the cadence, and it's become instinctual.

I feel, however, that I will never master trackstands.