Hathayogapradipika, i.68

Success is achieved neither by talking about it nor by wearing the right clothes.
Practice alone brings success. Of this there is no doubt.

All right, so I bought the bike last night. Brought it home and put the finishing touches on it. I rode it around the block a bit and it's starting to come back to me now. I can track stand for about 3 seconds until I lose balance, but I'll get better. I haven't got brakes on it right now, but when I decide on the bars I'll order levers and the caliper with them. Here is the bike (excuse the pink fork) :

The pink fork is the best thing about that bike!

1. narrow the bars for street cred (no one, but no one, runs wide bars on a fixed gear)
2. please do not ride in active traffic without a brake since you said skidding/skipping etc makes you nervous (that is a good reaction to have at first).
3. ride your bike! have fun. it will all come back, and get better every day. I learn something new (subtle) literally every day, have been riding fixed for about 10 months now.

also, that wheel looks pretty tenuously far forward in the dropouts (could just be the angle of the pic)