Identity Crisis

The eagle-eyed viewers will notice we've gone from Cafe, to Scrambler, and then back to Cafe again... it's all about the bars.
We've been struggling a lot with bar-tank interference.  The lower bars and the steering lock is such that at "full lock" the bars hit the front of the tank.  Other cafe-d CX500s use a different tank, but sourcing those tanks is difficult, and they carry a premium price.  So instead, we decided to go back to Cafe Bars which helped somewhat with the clearance issue, but we still need to massage the fuel tank to allow the bars to be turned a safe amount.

I prefer this racier stance for sure, but you can see the "dimples" just aft of the bars.  Judicious use of a ballpeen hammer has allowed for enough clearance.  The tank will be repainted, and hopefully a guru at the pant shop can maintain the clearance and make the dimples look like they are supposed to be there.  There aren't a whole lot of hammer marks anyway, so that's positive.  The sheetmetal was thin enough that it didn't need to be beaten too severely.

The OEM-style fork dust boots were also installed.  The gaiter style accordion boots didn't fit very well.  The fender is pretty substantial -- we actually had to remove the forks after this picture, install the fender, and then reinstall the forks in the triple clamps.  Forks of this era aren't the sturdiest, so the fender acts as a brace.  It's not super heavy, but is stiff -- what the front end certainly needs.

The front view.  The front fender sits a tad high, but other than that, it looks OK.  A lot of the wiring will be the next step, along with finalizing the exhaust mount.  We'll be installing a period-correct, but uprated, front caliper to these forks to improve the stopping power of our hopefully quicker machine.  The front disc is also a lighter EBC unit.  We've been talking as a group about the benefits of reducing rotating/gyroscopic mass.