couple of questions

Can someone please clear up a couple of points regarding fixed wheel bikes please

- My bike is missing a rear spoke, but I have been told (by a mechanic) that this is less important to fix on fixies than regular bikes, and its not totally necessary to replace. Does anyone know why this is please?

- I have been told to keep my chain bone dry. Why is this better than using a regular amount of oil (I can see that geared bikes need oil, but surely I need some amount of oil on my fixie chain)

FWIW. No offense to your "mechanic" but, IMO, you should REPAIR the wheel as soon as possible ... & LUBE your chain on a regular basis.

Now, the reason you can skate a bit on a rear wheel with a broken spoke is because the wheel probably has little-or-no dish ... so, when a spoke breaks, there is less imbalance in the tension on the resulting spokes ... AND, there may not be a rear brake against which the rim would inevitably rub ...

BUT, you are potentially damaging the wheel the more you ride on it without replacing the broken spoke.

Whatever chain lube you use hopefully does two things -- it lubricates the PINS & it protects the outer surface of the plates.

I use a Shimano coaster brake 3 speed. The coaster brake exerts tremendous torque on the spokes. When I break a drive spoke I know a non drive spoke is sure to follow. I busted about 5 spokes one at a time and then relaced the wheel.

I think this is a good example because the 3 speed hubs also have no dish to them, yet it shows that when one of the spokes is missing it puts extra strain oh the others.

You would be surprised how easy it is to pop in a spoke. Go to a shop, get one of the correct length (same as the old one), and pop it in. Tension it the same as the others, grasp it with the outermost spoke it crosses with your fist, squeeze as hard as you can, retension, and ride. It will take almost all the wobble out of the rim without even truing. My method for getting the tension the same is to tap it and listen to the ring.

Get some sort of dry lube if you don't like a mess.