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@Rik_Van_Looy
Agreed - Light, cheap, stiff and potential very rad - the only thing you need to worry about is vertical dropouts - I can think of 4 solutions.
1) ENO hub - not really in the spirit of a rat-beater
2) Magic gear - again, a lot of hassle, limitation on available gearing and pain in the arse when the chain stretches.
3) Open up the dropouts with a file - easiest solution, works a treat - a bit nerve wracking though.
4) Cut a donor piece of aluminium to fill the dropout, weld in place and then cut a new, horizontal dropout where you want it! I've never tried this, but wondered whether anyone else had - a quick google search turned up this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGbkOHoShMo
About 10 years ago I built a training bike using the dropout filing technique. In those days, cheap fixed hubs were hard to come by so a BB lockring was used with a bit of locktite - ghetto fabulous.
Heres what it looked like....