I have a 5.2 also that I restored. I removed the center bar so that I would not get use to it in case I moved to another kind of cat. No other cat has one. The people that have not removed the bar loves it. They get use to using it and I did not want to get into that habit.

If you do remove it all you have to do is put a couple of rivets into each of the front bar hold down straps. I removed the front bar mount but left the rear bar mount. I do have a habit of putting my foot on that to steady my self.

If you click on th it will take you to other pics of the 5.2