my stock mirrors work fine as designed..
no problem with clear rear/side views
or vision obstruction with arms etc..
use both pivots incl up and down
of mirrors pivots to get your view..
one thing tho, because of the design for
good viewing, they do extend out each side
a little which can result in hitting cars mirrors
when filtering between cars at stop lights etc..
alarms cagers tho, which i prefer not to do poor things,
but doesnt cause real damage as they will move
in response to being struck.. amount of friction
of main joints as assembled seems obviously
designed in for just this sort of minor impact..
all i do is then adjust them out again with my
left hand [taking care to maintain attention etc]..
so while they are a bit wide, i accept this as a design
parameter with good vision as the design imperative..
especially for novices but for all riders really..
as for riding without any mirrors, this would seem from
a lifetime of motorcycling to be not in your best interests..
i find numerous situations where i want/need to know
just where others sharing the same road spaces
are in relation to me,, when its clear to move
laterally and so on..
eg, when cars are lined up to turn right [left hand driving]
at a stoplight without right turn arrows, they tend to get
stuck there when the other side light goes red, perhaps
the first or first couple of cars getting thru..
sometimes timid drivers will just sit there and noone
gets thru.. thus i will ease up to the front of that line
on the left of the car line, more or less just in the left lane,
thus allowing cars to pass bye if they are there and want to,
to go thru the light in that lane,, so i end up at the front
but behind the front car at their side and rear, ready to
shadow them thru the light turning right..
if they dont, move, then i can still safely pass around them
and into the right turn ahead of them.. [lot of text there
for a simple technique]
thing is this is an eg of when i need to know
just what is coming up behind he in
the lane opposite..
so for me also, these mirrors work well
based on good design for function
so they 'look good' in my minds eye...