IMO, if it was a trike with retracts, it'd better stay a trike it'd better stay a trike with retracts.

Once you go to a taildragger, (calypso, joker etc) then I really don't care about the retracts so much. They look kind of pretty with pants.

Incidentally, in the 80's there was a guy here in australia that modified his Arrow to make it more competitive in turnaround, by lightening it (a lot), removing the trike retracts, and going for a mono wheel and tip skids, like a U2 spyplane.

The monowheel however was wearing a pant!