Are you saying, that in Chicago, you were riding Fixies before they were cool?

I think there's something about the "before they were cool" statement that Higgs-Boson-like goes back in time and prevents it from happening.

It's true.

I hosted chifg.com after the great bikeforums schism. And that was prior to lfgss.com. I also helped quite a few other cities get up and running with communities, probably about 15 or so.

The first was NYC though. They were the ones who after the BF schism set up an invite only community for fixed gear bikes.

Tracing earlier than that and you only find messengers/couriers riding them, go back to 1987 and you pretty much end up with 1 Toronto messenger and Buffalo Bill in London.

By the time I set up http://www.lfgss.com I already figured that the fixie thing was dead, but if anything it boomed afresh.

As trends go, I think it ceased to be fashion a while ago and became utility. It wouldn't have survived otherwise.