I had a guy stop me last night...

cornelius blackfoot i'm surprised by the "earn your spurs" kind of comments you get on here sometimes, we all ride bikes, roadbikes, mtb's, bmx's and you learn different things on all of them, but the basics remain the same, I have a bit of cash burning a hole in my pocket and I'm going to spend it on whatever I want, just because I'm moving from riding a banged up mtb to getting on a fixed wheel, doesn't mean I have to start at the bottom all over again. you ride what you want and what you can afford. I'm not going to look down on anyone who wants to build a beater or spend a little more cash on their frame, or searches on ebay all day looking for bargains or someone who goes and buys as much phil wood's stuff as they can get their hands on.
What is underground, becomes popular goes overground, everyone buys into it, you either find some other form of cycling, unicycling anyone! which is underground, you wait for the poseurs and the bandwagon jumpers to get over it and to sell their bikes for cheap, snapping up bargains as you go, or you just ride and enjoy riding and building up bikes and talking about bikes and it doesn't matter what everyone else does, because your doing what you want to do.
Everyone wants to be part of a tribe, but you never want the tribe to be to big, or to popular, otherwise it doesn't make it special if anyone can join and knows about it. Personally the more people who come to cycling/fixed gear the better and I'll take them on their personalities rather than how they got into riding their bikes. If they're cnuts they're cnuts. Whether they are riding a fixed gear or not.

Well said !