Re:Permissions on main menu?
I think this the way it normally works. You will see the menu item but there will not be no 'sub-menu' items when expanding the menu. Clicking the menu will give your the 'permission denied' page.
The only way you can work around this - that I know of - is to define a custom menu for your users and assign the default application menu to admins only e.g.
Regards,
Pat.