I think you lot are a load of wussies! Of course it would't be pratical to fit retract to a Chippy... but. It's a very impractical aeroplane:
No luggage space
Not much fuel capacity
No heater
Noisy
Draughty (see: no heater)
Covers you in oil during pre and post flight stuff
Expensive to maintain
.....BUT
It is absolutely LOVELY to fly! (So I forgive it all the above, hence my 30-year love affair with one. I was unfaithful once - left her for a Yak 52 - but since returned to my first love).
And yes. It wouldn't half look good in flight with the mains retracted. They don't call it the poor man's Spitfire for nothing!
SSD