Bandera, I ride without foot retention, but probably because I'm Dutch: over here, everybody (well, except immigrant women, but that's another story) starts to ride as soon as they're able to walk, basicly. Many kids start out with little wooden Draisienne's and move on to bigger and better bikes with more pedals and gears as they grow up. For most people, the evolution ends at the city bike to get around town or commute to work: none of these bikes have foot retention whatsoever. When starting out riding specialty bikes like road bikes, MTB's and fixies, most people percieve foot retention as very dangerous. The idea of being stuck when in a crash and thus adding crash damage is prevalent, if a little unfounded. When I started out riding on FG bikes the thought of adding foot retention didn't even occured to me. Now I'm perhaps a little older and a little wiser and have gained much more experience in riding other specialty bikes with foot retention ranging from classic Christophe clips+straps to Eggbeaters, but I'm still happily riding along without retention on my FG. I just don't really want to bother with clipping in and out in city traffic. Another bonus is that I can ride with any kind of shoe, from dress shoes to flip flops.