Not knowing anything about fixed gear bicycles (and little about building them), I purchased a vintage steel frame from a massive swap meet in Maryland. I was taken by the loud paint, the chrome fork and chainstay, and the idea that I could build a type of bike that I'd only ever ridden once before. $100 got me the frame, and $10 got me some track handlebars.
Of course, the frame ended up being nonstandard in many ways. Since Fondriest is an Italian brand, the bottom bracket threads were both Italian right-hand threaded, and it took calling 10 bicycle shops to find one which could chase the threads using the proper tool.
The seat post tube was also a strange size (26.6 mm), requiring some time spent in the depths of eBay for a matching chrome unit.
The headset on the fork was also the wrong size, which required replacement.
I went with some cheap (but tried and true) Sun M13 rims laced to Formula track hubs, keeping the polished silver / retro theme going to the wheels.
The crankset is from Retrospec, and I was able to find some cool polished toe cage pedals from Facebook Marketplace. Jonah, a high school buddy and founder of Triangle Free Bike Repair, found me a nice front brake caliper and seat from his scrapyard of donations!
Unfortunately, the rear dropouts weren't long enough to accommodate chain lengths in whole numbers, so I was forced to add a half-link - not a problem, just a bit anoying :)
Total build cost came out to just over $650 - not bad for how many parts I had to buy new!
I'm really pleased with how it turned out, both in aesthetics and ride quality! The 48x19 gearing is well suited to climbing hills and getting up to speed in the city, and the steel frame is surprisingly compliant over bumps. The skinny 23mm GP4000 tires my dad had in a spare parts box aren't the most comfy, but they fit, are pretty fast and were free.
The longest I've ridden on this is 35 miles, and I definitely started to feel it in my knees - although the same feeling happens when I ride a normal bike long distances too.
I wanted some third party opinions, so I had Jonah, Max, and my dad take a spin. Great success!