Exactly. I am coming at this bike from that angle, too.
I have had a Yamaha FJ1200 for 12 years. I love the bike - it's a smooth, decent handling powerhouse, and all day comfortable - but I am tired of almost dropping it every time I'm doing a tight maneuver, especially with a passenger. I do a lot of highway riding, as well as city streets, and some backroads, and the bike is always just on this side of being a handful.
For me, the gsxf is a step in the right direction. The bike is as light as my first bike - a Kawi KZ440LTD - a cruiser I never had trouble manuevering, even though it was my first 'own'-bike. The gsxf looks and sits very close to my FJ, only its a little smaller and almost a hundred pounds lighter. I don't need a powerhouse. I need a nice standard-like moderately-sized bike that does normal riding chores well. The gsxf's good looks and wind protection are only pluses.
I am also very aesthetically driven. The gsxf is the first bike I have seen in many years that just got me right there when I first saw it. The FJ did that to me when I first saw one in about 1986. I saw the FZ6, the Bandit 600, the YZF600R before it was discontinued here, the 650 v-strom, the Kawi 650R, the SV650 variants, and whatever other midsized bikes that weren't important enough for me to remember right now. None of them, except the YZF, even interested me enough to make a special trip to the dealer to sit on one.
If my Drifter sells tomorrow, I will have a black/silver gsx650f this week.
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