Wow, C&V getting a little rough on the fixed gear. Which means they've never ridden one. It's a lot of fun.

Front brake on the right is a lot easier if you only have one brake. Leaves you the appropriate hand free to signal and whatnot. Sheldon recommends. I'd ditch the suicide lever, though - those things are scary enough when you have two brakes!

Not sure about fixed "frame punishment"; the Trek 400 I pulled out of the garbage does just fine as a fixed gear. I'm not much of a sadist, though.