Ran without front fenders for years. No big deal, put on a real headlight (7 inch sidemount) and a lot of crud gets deflected. Especially if you add small rubber "bellows" to the headlight mounting ears, from back of headlight bucket to base of the ears.

I run a full rear fender, specifically a Shovelhead FLH replica. If I can find the right Cobra Boulevard fiberglass 1100 Shadow fender my bike will run a full front fender too.

My 63 Honda 250 is my "hardcore" bike now. No fenders, cafe style seat insert covered with rubber. No hand controls at the moment, Honda cables don't fit in replica 60s Brit bike levers or perches. Twin pull drum brakes front and rear. Kick only with dual point ignition. It used to be a CL72 Scrambler, someone swapped the rare CL pipes for common as dirt CB72 low pipes (with no tail pipes after the 12 inch glaspacks). Good thing it is a solo bike, I'd feel sorry for the unlucky passenger, no rear pegs, no grab bar/strap, no backrest and a dirt track tire. Their "naughty bits" would get ground off pretty quickly...