They make a flipflop hub for singlespeeds. One way is fixed as you describe, but you can pull the whole wheel, flip it around, and it becomes a single-speed freewheel where backpedalling does nothing. Lots of folks use those. A lot of the riders on fixies usually have a front brake just in case.
As a mountain biker and former downhill racer you have some interesting views.
I wear clip ins on all my mountain bikes for the last 15 years, when I used to race downhill I would clip in depending on the track, for all recreational riding I always clip in. The only time I don’t is if I am just riding to the shops.
I wear lycra when riding, tight clothes are not just about reducing resistance they are comfortable for riding. Lycra shorts are the single best thing any cyclist can invest in.
I don’t think you have been exposed to many serious recreational mountain bikers.
I think my post was misinterpreted (or, more likely, I was unclear). My point number 1 was directed at the OP. What I meant was that the article related to road riding, which he obviously wouldn’t be doing. He’d be on a CX and MTB, and none of that stuff is needed.
I retract number 4, though still posit that many, many more roadies wear the lycra portrayed in that article than do MTB’s or CX riders.
I don’t think I said anything about more serious CX or MTB’s not wearing clip-in’s.
And again, like I said, this is all likely very regional.
I have never seen an elementary school with a bike rack. In my town, only the Middle School had a bike rack, a fact I only realized after arriving at the High School on my 10-speed. 
Everything they say in number five has been true since I learned to ride a 10-speed in … 1980. If your seat is properly adjusted, you can’t reach the ground from the seat. Swing a leg over the crossbar, put a foot on a pedal, and move your butt to the seat while you’re moving. As a new rider I hated that, and I tried as much as possible to only come to a full stop next to a curb I could put my foot on or a sign I could hold onto.
And all the guys in the High School’s Bicycle Touring Club my brothers were in (Class of 77 and 79) used toe clips. They had a great story of a friend who started out from a rest stop in the wrong gear, up a ever-so-slight rise, with a soda in his hand: couldn’t shift, couldn’t pedal against the resistance, and couldn’t get his feet out of his toe clips, so he just came gently to a stop and then fell over.
The Bicycle Touring Club thought nothing of covering 70 miles after school on Friday so they could spend the weekend camping at the beach, or riding to Maine (from Connecticut) for a 3-day weekend. They were fanatical about lightweight bikes because they also needed to carry spare parts and camping gear, and many of them also did amateur racing.
By the time I got to High School, nothing so cool existed, and all I had were some really awesome hand-me-down bikes. 
I ride to work every day on a Schwinn “comfort bike”, no toe clips, and on a good day I hit 12mph.
I hope no one has done this one yet.
No, the future will be when every Doper in the thread realizes that you are making a joke. Because you are ALWAYS making a joke.
No, the future will be when they stick a flux capacitor into that motor. Or will that be the past… I need to think more 4th dimensionally!
So? Don’t like it, put him on ignore.
When I went to a public elementary school in the early 80’s, no one would ride their bikes to school. One time a kid did, and boy was it ever a big mistake. During recess some kids would go over to the bike rack and just pull stuff off the bike (it was one of those ones with pads and stuff on it to look cool) and just utterly trashed the thing. By the end of the day that thing looked about 20 years older than it had in the morning. 20 HARD years.
I’ve never seen a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than public schools.
This is exactly why I ride a recumbent bike.
I don’t have a tiny seat being shoved up my back side. I can sit up and actually see where I’m going without having to crane my neck. My arms aren’t tired from holding up my body.
I will never go back to an upright bike; they are just too painful to ride for any great distance.
Recumbent bikes cause be useful for some, but if you have a solid core, your arms shouldn’t be tired because your core is supposed to support your body.
Also, if the bike is properly sized and fitted, weight should be distributed hands/seat/butt.
Right, fit is key. If your bike is the right size, but uncomfortable, a fitting will help. They can run several hundred dollars though.