Philip Huyghe wrote; The point I was making was that I would rather use the correct tool for the job. That means a bike that fits the task at hand , as in a road bike for the road and a track bike for the track.
i agree, which is why i ride a road bike with a fixed wheel on the road. fixed wheel road bikes have been used for time trials, winter training, courier work and as city hack bikes since time.
track bikes on the road are a matter of taste, i rode one for a while (a 1954 gillott) but now my fixed hack is a nameless 1980's japenese tange production road frame. rides superbly. the gillott now wears chater-lea and airlites and hardly goes out. go figure.
this anti fixie thing is a little silly to me. it's mostly a generation gap, a dislike of the excesses of the fashionable young, and annoyance at them daring to be young! i agree it is a shame for a classic road bike in good condition to have its gear hanger cut off, or a pair of track ends brazed in. but if all that's been changed is adding a pair of riser bars with grips that match the bubblegum coloured deep Vs, where's the harm? a piece of classic steel is getting ridden and loved and when some of the fixie riders move on, or back to geared bikes they may well be getting new steel ones or resurrecting an old classic. the fixie crowd like steel, ask bob jacksons how many track frames they're selling at the moment.
Philip Huyghe also wrote; But the most important point I would like to make is that from a historical / collector / restorer perspective it is IMHO a shame to disrespect the original builder's time, effort, skill, and design knowledge in order for someone to decide that they want to follow the fixie craze.
i agree that if you want an 'as original' bike, modifications over the years are a problem. my other gillott had its rear simplex hanger and the downtube shifter mount cut off, i've restored that frame to 'original condition' and it has a juy 53 and 51 derailleur set-up which makes it much less practical and it's used less than if it had later kit. i suppose it all depends on the 'worth' of the original bike and whether changes are irreversible. bikes have always been modified by their owners to reflect their tastes and changing times. how many toothed campag rear drop-outs were filed smooth to allow use of better derailleurs? these modifications seem generally to be seen by this forum as 'history and patina' whereas track ends brazed into an 70's columbus sl frame are heresy.
simon bird
london
england