Besides beach cruisers, it seems like SS/FG's are the second most popular style of bike most people just throw together. Sure, there posts where people take their dad's bike from the 70's, give it a wash and tune-up and start riding it. But, it seems like with Singlespeeds and Fixed Gears, people often go for the cheap route.

Of course there's the opposite also. There are those who ride some very fancy bikes featuring limited edition Cinelli MASH frames and aero wheels that rival the pricetag of high-end road bikes.

My question, is from an economics standpoint. It seems like the market for SS/FG is very specialized and nice bikes are the exception, not the norm. As such, if one were ever to sell such a bike, he'd be face with a much larger challenge than someone selling say a high-end road bike. Even a used Madone that used to cost thousands is attractive to a person just starting out riding. They can understand the value and pedigree of the bike, see the high price tag, and see that they are getting a high-end bike for a relatively cheap bike.

Given the demographic of a FG rider, say one starting out, would they be likely to drop that kind of money on a used bike that was originally $2500 new? Even at half off ($1250), I imagine would be hard to swallow for a typical FG rider.

I am asking this question from the perspective of someone who did build a middle-high end SS/FG (Sugino 75's all around, for instance). I wonder if I should have gone for an IRO or *gasp* even a Republic at a much lower cost.

*I just used arbitrary prices to make a point; don't ding me on them.

95% of the people I know all have fixed gear bikes worth well over $1,500.

If you can't appreciate the difference between cheap parts and expensive parts - in terms of build and feel, then you wasted your money. Either way, building a bike is not an investment. You are almost guaranteed to lose money on resale, unless you are buying parts at or below cost.

I've built up everything from a $50 Salvation army Special to a $4k Indy Fab - I've always gotten a reasonable return on resale, but I always end up losing money. The two high end SS bikes that I've built and sold - a custom Cannondale and a Ventana SS MTB, both sold for reasonable money. I didn't do any better or worse than with any other bike I've sold. In fact, the market for SS/FG is still pretty hot, so you have a better chance at resale with these types of bikes than, say, a 26" hardtail MTB (speaking from personal experience).

Robotkiller made some pretty good points,
you dont have as many part as other bikes, so you notice the little things a lot more easily, and It can git on you nerves if you are used to a certain thing.


I really like steel tri bikes, and they tend not cost all that much luckily .
Wheels tend to cost me the most. Some people cant stand then flex. so they have to ride aluminum. The thought of that makes my back hurt.

They're called track bikes/ parts....

EDIT: +1 to robotkiller

Thanks for the discussion guys. In no way am I trying to recoup 100% of my costs when I resell. I am not talking about that at all. I just mean that the general public isn't looking into SS/FG and if they are, I imagine they aren't aiming for high end so when you go to sale, you have to look for people who might appreciate say Phil Wood hubs and are willing to pay for them on a bike.

As for the second question, it is more of a progression in cost; conversion => off the block fixie => nice actual professional track bike; custom track bike* (* because many people do not reach this point) and upgrading parts in between.

I use my fixed wheel bike for utility, I can't justify dumping a ton of cash into a flashy bike that is just going to get thrashed/left outside. Looking into a mountain bike that will cost at least 3-4x as much as my "budget" fixed gear for trail riding and some rec-intermediate level racing. It will be babied, washed/serviced, and stored indoors after every ride. It is hard to do that when it is 0F out and your bike is covered in sand/salt/snow at 2am... Plus, I ride a lot more because I can leave my bike wherever I go and not sit and worry (as much) about it getting jacked...

There's a surprisingly large market for high end parts in communities nearby velodromes. As a track racers, I don't think it ridiculous at all to spend nearly as much on my track racing bike as I do on my road racing bike. People who race on a velo, are willing to shell out for frames like a Vigorelli or Mash or Pista Concept; the same way they are for BMCs SLTs, Cervelos R3s, etc. on the road.

The FG on the street scene is a dipole between sub $1k bikes and over $1k bikes (abitrary division), the difference between the two parties is the functionality to race these bicycles at a higher category level, (track or cross ss). Lots of people like to build velodrome caliber bikes to ride around on the street, it's impractical but, hell, it's fun.

why is steven segal killing those kids? its funny how when you have children of your own things like this become less and less funny. oh wait i get it now... ha ha ha steven is killing them cause they are eating his cotton candy... lmao... one of the dumbest signatures ive ever seen. grats!

If you ride your bike, Why not?

yeah, i don't have kids but i hate that sig.

depends on how much, and what you use the bike for.

Adblock FTW?

Wow very good point. I hadn't considered the resale market if a track is near. But I would be most people who have a MASH bike are riding in the streets of SF not a real velodrome. Right?

Didn't think to do that, but now I have.

Apparently it's not cheesy enough for you.....

Don't worry, I always keep a bottle of this for people like you:

Leuky - even though I think it's funny as hell, that sig is a little obnoxious (and it slows down my phone like a mofugga).

That would be my vote... If everyone had big signatures with video and stuff, it would be chaos.

But only I do.

It's just a .gif image anyway....

You can block it using adblock, just right click!

I won't block it because iz real funnie

I dunno if I agree with this.. someone just starting out would probably not know about the value and pedigree of a Madone and would still think it's too much money for a bicycle, unless they were into road racing and did some research. The same could be said about expensive track bikes.

i'll just leave this here...


(ps that sig sucks)

It's better than your mom.

my moms dead, thanks