20?? Mercier Kilo TT (sold)

Another impulse purchase off craigslist. I wanted to check out the whole fixed gear track bike thing. Ultimately I decided that my knees weren't up to fixed gear riding so I sold it to someone with younger knees. Plus, I realized that I really like coasting.

The Mercier Kilo TT isn't particularly light or flashy, nor is it actually French or Japanese anything else that may be implied by the name, but it's a good no-frills chromoly fixed gear bike for riding on the street. Last I checked you could still buy one of these completely built-out from Bikes Direct for $360. I can't comment on the quality of the components they come with since mine had been built up by the previous owner from a bare frame using a variety of fairly nice components. But at that price it seems like a heck of a deal.

I liked the way the Mercier handled, not as twitchy as a true track bike but quick enough to be a lot of fun. The ride is as stiff as you'd expect from a bike with fairly short chain stays and relatively stout tubing, but it was comfortable enough for me to do a couple of century rides on it without feeling too beat up at the end.

The frame doesn't have clearance for fenders or tires any wider than 25mm, there are no fender eyelets and there are no water bottle mounts (but strangely enough it has braze-ons to attach a rear rack--not sure what the thinking is there), so if you're looking for a bike you can fender up for winter commuting, there are better choices. But for bombing around town or sunny day training rides, there's little to not like about the Mercier.