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Which I understand is the point of the tensioner in this application: which only impacts anything when folded: ie Bad Things shouldn't happen when resisting the pedals while riding (unlike on a bike with an RD and a buggered freewheel). Right?
The pedal clearance point admittedly worries me a bit. I have 165mm cranks on my Dolan FXE, which provides plenty of clearance, but when first learning to ride fixed, I'd corner virtually upright before I trusted the geometry. Believe the BB drop is 280mm, but need to check this against the FXE.
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After a recent insurance payout, I'm thinking of getting a folder, but I have certain (esoteric and probably unsound) requirements: (a) fixed gear; (b) a front disc brake (no rear brake: the ugliest thing about a Brompton is the cabling); (c) bullhorns, and (d) a power meter (probably hub based). Bonus points for a belt drive. Ben at Kinetic suggests that this is buildable, but not necessarily rideable. Anyone currently riding a fg Brompton? Would you do it again, other than for the lols? This would be N=6 (summer, CX/turbo, TT, SS, FG/winter), so we're we'll beyond practicality considerations: the alternative is something exotic and/or italian, but that's a bit boring.
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I also just got one of these. First FG/SS. Immediately flipped to fixed, within 2 weeks have added SPD pedals (M540s), changed the brakes to TT/pursuit brakes (Tektro Rx 4.1s), added tarty red cable outers. Have also--to my shame--ordered coloured chainring bolts and a lockring. Aim to keep 2 brakes for a while (and like the symmetry with TT/pursuit brakes). OEM tyres are very chunky, will probably change for 25mms after the first p*ncture.
Looking at new cogs/chainrings. OEM is 42x16, could probably do with something taller as I'm giving up too much speed on the downslope (either that or persuade legs to go at more than 120 rpms, which they decidedly do-not-like). Genuine hesitation is that BLB's smaller sprockets (sub 16T) don't come in red and their red chainrings are monster 46/48s, which is a huge jump in gear inches, so for the moment vanity loses out to practicality.
But I love riding fixed, an absolute revelation. (But beware of claims like it will pay for itself given that you're already talking about upgrades!)
Found your thread, outstanding work. Powertap looks to be the cleanest solution, but probably requires a better machine shop than I have (which looks more like a dremel and a clamp than your setup). If I abandon the belt drive, that should open up NDS crank or spider based power meters, but google is unclear as to whether the strain gauge would foul the frame, particularly on the NDS approach (4iiii, Pioneer, Stages). Pedal based PMs not acceptable because I'm not a monster.