so, i built up a beater fixie conversion but the q-factor is too wide. does anyone know a ghetto method to get a narrower q-factor?

You can go with a shorter BB spinder to bring your cranks in.

On a related note, about two weeks ago my BMX cranks got trashed so I moved over some old road cranks which have a MUCH tighter Q. However it seems like I'm unable to generate as much power as I did on my old cranks. Has anyone else noticed this. Is it a result of the narrowed stance? The old ones were probably a little too wide for ultimate comfort. Would I be better served by a more modern road double crank?

I'm running an older road crank (old, yet still modern... Shimano 600 series... just old enough to be cheap used).

Keep in mind that pedals will also affect Q... clipless are generally rather standard, but running clips with shoes gives you a lot of slop (for better or worse)- slop in the sense that just changing your shoes might even help- unlike moving the cleats in a clipless setup.

Yeah, I've thought about moving my clips as far outboard as they'll go, but I think that may put my feet a little to far out on the pedal. They're not terribly wide as it is.