Thank you guys. Yes, I do have workshop manual. I also have 'some' mechanical skills, however more of the theoretical/design flovour rather than practical skills



. I do better with electronics than mechanical work
I'd prefer to do the work on my motorcycle myself as long as I know what I'm doing. I have (usually) no problem with taking the bike to the shop AS LONG AS I trust the guys in the shop. Somehow, I think around west Chicago subs it's rather rare quality. The 'trust' I mean.
I do have the center stand, so that is certainly a plus for working on the front end. When I took off the front wheel to be re-balanced to see if the wobble was due to missing weights on the front wheel, it was simple task of putting some weight on the passenger seat to keep the front end up in the air. I should have taken a picture of my contraption!
Right now I'm trying to figure out if I want to do the head bearing replacement myself, get it to workshop (initial estimate of 5-6 hrs which is at least $500 to $800 in labour) or just keep my hands on handlebar at all time

. I have plenty of time to decide, as I'm not going to do anything near term: my garage is not heated and recently it was on a chilly side, here in norther Illinois. I'm leaning towards doing it myself at the mo. So any experiences and tips are welcome.
BTW, I've learned the hard way how heavy the CTX is. I was trying to do U-turn on an uphill, gravel side road... It was silly idea in hindsight. I laid it gently on the side, wheel pointing up the hill. Thanks to Menosbe guards (great product!), no damage done, but I had to hail down a guy in a pickup for help... took about 45 sec, maybe 50 sec and there were two pickups stopped and people willing to help! Both ex-bikers at it happened

Rural Illinois for you. Fantastic.
Thanks for all the comments,
Take care,