[greglepore]

I ride a fixie on the road, a converted Bianchi Concept 2000 track bike. Put a road fork on it so that I could mount a front brake...don't believe in the no brakes idea. Its an interesting break from a normal bike, and a different riding experience. In an urban environment they are a hoot, the instant acceleration/deceleration is an advantage in traffic, as is the increased ability to trackstand (the ability to apply reverse torque to the rear wheel makes it much easier).

Allegedly they will improve your spin. Using legs for brakes definitely works muscles that don't get worked during normal riding, but I don't know whether this qualifies as "good for you". I just like occasionally riding something without gears and that is much lighter, responsive and, well, just different feeling.

Having a flipflop hub isn't bad advice. If its your first rodeo, I'd probably find an old road frame with horizontal dropouts and convert that, track frames are available but the geometry results in much "sharper" handling-not a bad thing, but you may not appreciate it.