Lute Mirrors

[CB4ME_imp]

I received a pair of Lute mirrors from Takashi just 60 hours after they were shipped. These mirrors and the ones on the White House Hakofugu bike are distributed by Tanax (http://www.tanax.co.jp) under the Napoleon brand name. I love their look and excellent adjustability (except for tilt – see below).

Silas and CBville purchased the Hakofugu mirrors (Napoleon calls them the Vincent). Both reported vibration issues. I can report the same with the Lute mirrors, although it’s not enough of an issue to abandon the mirrors.

The Lute offers a crystal clear view at 2500 RPMs and under. At 3000 RPM vibration is apparent and it’s difficult if not impossible to read license plates. Above 3500 RPM, cars appear to have 2 sets of lights. But the vibration never gets much worse and never bad enough to render the mirrors unusable. At 7000 RPM, I could easily see the (fuzzy) cars in the mirrors, receding very quickly I might add!

The mirrors use a standard 10mm right hand thread so you have to remove the chrome mounting “adapters” from the brake reservoir assemblies.

I’m 6’ 1” and with the mirrors tilted up as high as they could go, the view is a tiny bit too low. I’m going to rotate the brake reservoir a few degrees to solve that issue, and add some nylon or rubber washers to the base of the mirrors to reduce vibration.

Of the 3 sets of mirrors I’ve had, the stock mirrors give the best view but are the ugliest, the CB500f mirrors look great, give a excellent view but stick out too far for me, and the Lutes provide an acceptable view and look downright gorgeous. They’re staying on the bike.