Chainstay - fixed gear bikes had legs in England back in the 1960s, and even earlier!
Two uses - one, for the masses of fixed distance, flat road time trials that formed the bulk of English racing from shortly after the first two guys on bikes in England met... As those TTs were all out and back - a 25 was 12.5 each way, or as close as could be arranged, for example - and held on flat roads, a fixed gear was ideal.
The other use was as a winter bike. English roads were pretty messy in Winter, most racers were basically hard up to support their sporting aims, so a cheap fixed gear hack was the cheapest way to ride to work, do Sunday clubruns and the odd night-time rides in winter. It also saved the precious 'best bike' for the racing season.
It was much more fun when everyone was on one! We'd run real low gears - low 60's, say 45 x 18 or 19 - so every group ride was a screaming spinning session. Come start of training season - January, for the early March crit series - back onto gears for serious riding.
I have a Bianchi Pista that I exercise on stuff like down to the post office. Keep saying I'll take it out on my touring club's "fixie friendly" rides, but find when crunch time comes, "you can pry my cold, dead hands off my STI levers". Perhaps old age brings wisdom, but am not sure about flying around pedalling like a crazy thing with no ability to freewheel in a pack does't have the attraction it used to.
So, ride one for the heck of it, have one hanging around in the garage to impress the gang, or spend much of one's riding time 'fixed' to the back wheel's rotation - who cares but you? Go enjoy!
Regards
Dereck
Who has a crazy wantin' for a Bob Jackson track bike with chromed dropouts and round-bladed steel front fork - and can't figure out why!