Local guy bought this 85 RS from a relative.  Being a young buck (35) he thought that the fairing looked dated and subsequently contracted the Cafe-19 Virus.
 
Before:
 

 
After:

 
 
(Notice the yummy Staintune exhaust!)
 
He had it just about complete until he stripped the banjo bolt threads in the front master. (Doh!) He contacted me to see if I had replacement front master. I did. Since he'd already stripped one he asked if he could trailer it to my house and have my assistance in installing the replacement.  Sure, why not? While he was here we also installed a metal line I had that goes between the calipers.
 
After we added brake fluid he let me take it for a little test ride on 101. Yeehaw!
 
I'm not a big cafe fan but I think he did well for this being his first bike.

Someone had better tell him about the front mudguard to Washington weather ratio, and that annoying to-the-style-boys little rule called RCW 46.37.500 requiring fenders.

(1) Except as authorized under subsection (2) of this section, no person may operate any motor vehicle, trailer, cargo extension, or semitrailer that is not equipped with fenders, covers, flaps, or splash aprons adequate for minimizing the spray or splash of water or mud from the roadway to the rear of the vehicle. All such devices shall be as wide as the tires behind which they are mounted and extend downward at least to the center of the axle.

OMG! All my bikes are unlegal. The factory rear fenders don't go down to mid axle.

(Not directed at you - unless you draft vehicle legislation in Olympia in your spare time.)

Two Wheels Better wrote:Someone had better tell him about the front mudguard to Washington weather ratio, and that annoying to-the-style-boys little rule called RCW 46.37.500 requiring fenders.

You can't see it in the picture but he also vertically mounted the license plate on the right side. (One of those ricer curved thingies.)  A guy I know in Poulsbo vertically mounted the plate on an otherwise  stock GS and got harassed for it by a Kitsap County deputy. Don't know if that was due to RCW or just a bike-hating LEO.

I took my Suzuki TS 185 to NSW motor registration to get it registered and they knocked it back stating that the mudguard or mudflap had to go to the centre of the axle. The bike has a very high rear mudguard so I got it back to work and attached 18" strip of reinforced rubber to the bottom of the number plate. I took it back to motor registration, he took one look at it and said that it looked ridiculous and that there was no way that I was going to ride it with that attached. He was going to send me away, until argued the point. I asked did it fulfil the criteria, he said yes, but it looked ridiculous. I said that looks didn't matter, and he countered that there was no way known I was going to ride the bike like that. I just said that that was none of his concern as long as it was roadworthy when he did the approval. He begrudging passed the bike, I rode back to work and as he predicted I immediately removed the mudflap. We shortly moved over the border to Vic where I had no problem with the lack of mudflap.
Regards Martin.

I had a TS185... lovely bike. The only trailie that I ever managed to bend the rear numberplate through 90 degrees by pulling a completely unexpected wheelie at the top of a steep bank. I had a rack on the back and that stopped me from sliding off completely. With the bike up at a stupid angle of around 75 degrees by this point I decided the only way I was going to get oout of the mess was to let go. So I did... the front end dropped, the bike described a half-circle and ended up less than ten feet from where I was flat on my back laughing almost uncontrollably.

Ahem. Back to the point. So you're saying that the 'inspector' knows better than the guys in government who approved that model for import?

Actually, I had an equal idiot here just after I'd moved to Northern Ireland. I took my V1000G5 to get its annual MOT and the inspector failed it because he didn't like the routing of the front hydraulic lines. I offered to show him a genuine Guzzi workshop manual showing that routing but no, he didn't like it and he was failing the test. I took the bike home, rebooked the test with a different testing station, did nothing with it and, of course, it passed.

Dai you're correct, there were thousands of registered trail bikes running around that didn't conform to that rule. A mate had his own garage and imported Mustangs as a sideline in the mid 70's. He also imported a VW trike kit from the US, a very short wheelbase compared to the later imports. After building it he took it down to the very same NSW registration office and tried to get it registered. He was knocked back due to the fact that they had no category at that stage that covered trikes. He tried to argue the point but it fell on deaf ears. Somehow he managed to get hold of a slightly out of date registration category approval book. He eventually managed to find a category that covered it. It took a lot of arguing and persuasion but they eventually allowed it to be registered. He registered it as a three wheeled tractor. He had to fit it with wheelie bars, as he got into to a lot trouble for doing wheelies up the main street.
Regards Martin.

Of course it's totally subjective how you feel about fenders or the lack of on motorbikes. I have never liked the look or the lack of function. I ride in the rain a lot. What can you expect? But when Johnny Law decides to flip a new page in his ticket book after stopping you for what ever he had in mind in the first instance, the law's on his side. 

Now, don't get me started on clip-on handlebars whilst the rider is bent over massively knobbed TKC80 tyres. What the f*ck genre is that and how's that for going fast round corners? Pure poseur. Whack some high bars on that bloody thing and get it dirty. Again, subjective. Now get offa my lawn!

I only went for a short ride on the cafe 85 and and didn't really notice the clip-on bars so they didn't seem that bad to me.  Probably OK for going cafe to cafe in a city. I suspect my opinion might differ trying to tour with them though.

As for no fenders and knobbies, pointless.

Two Wheels Better wrote:Someone had better tell him about the front mudguard to Washington weather ratio, and that annoying to-the-style-boys little rule called RCW 46.37.500 requiring fenders.

Note that RCW 46.37.500 was revised in 2016 to add "fair weather" exemption (2).  Not quite to forty years for K-bikes but getting close.  My 1988 example is wearing WA "collector vehicle" plate (+30 years) but I still have hard time thinking something with fuel injection, cast wheels and plastic bodiywork be "an old bike".

RCW 46.37.500 Fenders or splash aprons.

(1) Except as authorized under subsection (2) of this section, no person may operate any motor vehicle, trailer, cargo extension, or semitrailer that is not equipped with fenders, covers, flaps, or splash aprons adequate for minimizing the spray or splash of water or mud from the roadway to the rear of the vehicle. All such devices shall be as wide as the tires behind which they are mounted and extend downward at least to the center of the axle.
(2) A motor vehicle that is not less than forty years old or a street rod vehicle that is owned and operated primarily as a collector's item need not be equipped with fenders when the vehicle is used and driven during fair weather on well-maintained, hard-surfaced roads.