It all comes down to personal taste. Bar end mirrors just look plain wrong to me on the CB1100. Definitely not attractive to my eye. I actually dig the stock mirrors on the CB1100, both for the way they look and for the way they work.
To be totally honest, I'm more concerned with how "I" look on the bike as I could stand to lose a few pounds. Until that happens, no matter what I do to my CB, I'm going to be the most out of place part of the bike's look.
(06-30-2013 07:54 AM)Bonafide Wrote: I swear .. it sure is coming across here like some of you guys are just huddling over this forum so you can push your personal opinion as what's right and everyone else is wrong. Go ride your bike ... or polish your headlight .. or whatever trips your trigger.
Come on Bonafide, no one here called you out in particular. Everyone, including yourself, is entitled to their own opinion. In general, blacked out bikes aren't my thing either. But I would hope that if that is what someone chooses to do with their bike, they're doing so because they themselves prefer it and not because they are trying to impress others or are overly worried about what anyone else thinks.
Here in Portland, you almost couldn't throw a rock without hitting a hipster riding around on a 70's UJM that been ratted out and spray painted flat black. Sadly, those bikes are what defines the genre for me. In my eye, those bikes are totally cookie cutter (to use a phrase that you yourself used earlier in this thread).
I know that there are other examples out there that are executed in a way where, with even a quick glance, you can see that a considerable amount of time and effort were invested in the bike. Unfortunately they are few and far between where I live, so I hope that you might understand where some of us are coming from.
There is a section on this forum for other bikes, I hope when you're finished with your project you'll post it up there. I've been surprised before, and will surely be surprised many more times down the road (if I'm lucky) by the work of others. So please do share when you get a chance. Because here's the thing: even if a custom bike isn't to my taste, I can still appreciate a job well done.