Not too long ago, I acquired a 1972 XS2 with VIN S650-109212. The headlight bucket and the headlight ears are chrome instead of the expected "Brilliant Red." That's them above, on the right and bottom (I also have the other chrome headlight ear).
The patina on these parts match the rest of the bike, and everything about them tells me they are original.
So, what's up with that? Has anyone else ever seen an early chrome headlight?
Further adding to the mystery is the headlight bucket on the left in the picture. I bought it on eBay a couple of years ago. It has zero signs of ever having been mounted, so I assume it is NOS, but I don't have the original packaging.
Determined to waste even more time, I checked out my Yamaha color code reference PDF, to see if it would shed any light on this mystery. Above is what I found, overlaid on a 70- 73 headlight parts diagram. The color code for Chrome is "CM", which is not found on this or any other parts diagram.