I did say that "it can be kinda a hassle if you have to bend them in/space your wheel" although I guess hub is the right term. You're also definitely right about bb length adjustments, although there can be issues with bb's that are too short to accommodate the chainring on a ss crankset. And I definitely agree about not bending in aluminum drops.

Also in terms of 700 c vs 27 inch my conversion is 27 inch and I use 700 c wheels. Sng makes dual pivot long reach breaks that are perfect.

Yes, because track racers produce so much more power than a geared bike in a low gear

Starting off hard in a low gear (on a geared bike) yields less stress on the dropouts and stays than starting off hard on a fixed, higher geared, track bike. Thus track dropouts are thicker than road dropouts.

Well, if my brawny 160 lb physique manages to tear a road horizontal dropout to pieces, I'll be sure to post photos here

Anyone have better ideas than craigslist for the frame? Seems like most on there are BIG and I need a 56 cm or equivalent.

Anybody know what inch size frame I'd need, if I ride a 56cm bike? Seems they're sized differently than mountain bikes?

Spacing your hub is about as simple as it gets, if you have a standard track spaced hub (120mm) and a 7 speed spaced bike (126mm) just pull off the locknuts and add one 3mm spacer to each side, most LBS will give then away for free.

Of course if your lazy, and you have a nutted axle, you don't even need to respace, you can just tighten down the frame on the hub. It'll take a bit more work to tighten the track nuts than usual, but nothing a decent 15mm can't handle.

Trust me, I've done both, both work, and neither of them impacts chainline.

80's Japanese bikes like Miyata, Nishiki, Panasonic, Bridgestone are undervalued right now, except for the high end stuff. I snagged a nice Miyata with butted chromoly, complete bike, for $40 for a friend.
Horizontal dropouts stayed around till the mid-90s; 700c wheels became common in the early 80's so you've got a good time window of quality frames with both.

Garage sales are your best bet for an inexpensive bike. Or thrift stores if you live in a large city and can visit the stores on a daily basis to find a bike. Flippers lurk everywhere to snag the good deals then throw them up on CL or eBay so you have to act fast.

Simply convert the 56cm to inches(divide by 2.54).

Italian bottom brackets are still being made; it's the French bottom bracket and the Raleigh 26tpi bottom brackets you got to be careful with. If you've got the original bottom bracket cups and spindle you can make it work, if not, a replacement is hard to find.

Look for dropouts that are forged or at least stamped from heavy gauge steel. Dropouts held in place by crimping the stays I don't mess with but I see plenty of people riding on them.

Anyone heard of "puch" bikes? Apparently it is Italian- does that mean it has the wrong sort of threading on the BB?

By wrong do you mean Italian threading for an Italian threaded BB? Pretty common.

Well, wrong as in "not easily compatible with the majority of components that are produced today"

German bike. I believe it has standard English threading. Bianchi bought the company back in the 80's.

Austrian, actually. Puch/Damlier/Steyr. Conglomerate that also makes/made cars and firearms, partially in Germany (hence the confusion). English thread, made some real beauties under the Austro-Damlier brand, which I likely just mis-spelled and mangled. Decent stuff, that one looks to be entry level.

Nothing to jump after, then, if it's probably entry level? The owner wanted 150 for it, and I was going to offer a good bit less.

You are wrong. Mashing a big gear stresses the cranks and bottom bracket a lot, but mashing a little gear confers mechanical advantage and so by the time the force is transferred to the dropouts, it winds up being greater (other things being equal). This is why you can accelerate faster in a low gear. I think there's more to the explanation than this, but that, I hope, is the basic truth. Newtonian physics as applied to bikes is actually a bit tricky for me to grasp.

Yea, Styer Puch out of Austria, they have the patent on the viscous coupling. They built the drivelines for the VW Vanagon Syncro. They also used to make tanks, and some really badass Paris-Dakar trucks.

I'd pick up that frame, Austrian=cool points, also it isn't super flashy=not stolen

150 is insane though, I paid 90 shipped for my Panasonic Sports Deluxe, structurally perfect, some chips/nicks, and the paint was faded. It's yellow, so the faded paint looks awesome. It's getting pin striped right now by a friend to give a little custom touch, then it gets turned into my new commuter.

Panasonic frames are great, just a no frills frame, down to brass tacks

For the whole "stress on the dropouts" argument. It's bull.

Simply put, F=ma and you can accelerate faster with a lower gear, your mass isn't changed, and friction etc. stays the same from a fixed to geared bike, so only your acceleration is changing, therefore a greater force.

More scientifically, we get into torques which involve the length of the cranks, the force exerted by a track rider compared to a road rider, the difference in bikes mass etc. It gets complicated, but any way you put it, there is more force with a smaller gear ratio. Why do you think cars break their differentials when gunning it off a line because of too much torque... low end torque that fixed gears don't have.

I got an offer, very good price on this bike. It is a trek 400, based on my research it is from early 90s. Seems to have horizontal dropouts, they're just a bit short looking.

I also may be able to get ahold of a bridgestone rb-t frame. Very good price offer there too.

Any opinions on either?

pretty short drops. unless you're a huge trek fan, stay away, much better/useful/easier to convert frames available.