Went down to Springwood Suzuki to pick up a new visor, and ended up spending the entire afternoon testing riding motorcycles at the various places around. I'm looking for any excuse to buy a second motorcycle :)
I had three observations after riding multiple bikes across the whole spectrum.
a) The Honda Firestorm VTR 1000cc was crap. Cheap nasty horrible crap. Honda should have spent another grand on it and just finished off the small stuff that made me nearly beg to get off.
b) After riding a few others, I know why I bought my current SV650S. It may not do anything the best in it's class, but it does everything well enough to be an all round better bike.
c) The Suzuki Hayabusa and the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade are definitely on the investigate further list.
The Hayabusa was wickedly fast all while feeling like I was riding a flying carpet made of silk. It was so polite and humble about its speed. I had mental images of riding pillion, and informing my driver Parker that 150 was not sufficient speed. I had to be careful not to let the smooth ride fool me, as that speedo did go all the way to 300, and when opened up that engine climbed through the revs really quick. And contrary to popular opinion, the Hayabusa will turn through any corner as easily as other bikes if you respect the weight and power. I did the corners at the top of Moss St at speed with ease (I won't publish the speed for obvious reasons), and had plenty more turning available with total comfort that I could pull the bike up if needed.
The CBR1000RR was a completely different beast. As wildly fast as the Hayabusa, but just totally different otherwise. While the Hayabusa requires effort to wheel stand (due to its wheelbase, weight, and the torque limiters), the Fireblade required you to just think of it, and it was up. Once I got used to the aggressive riding position and respected the engine's power curve (not that it was lacking around town), the acceleration was bordering on terrifying. It's not that it was out of control, but rather it communicated brilliantly what was going on. It's no faster than the Hayabusa at any speed I'll do on public roads, though it really did communicate to the rider was going on. And it was agile, so beautifully agile.
Out of the two, the Hayabusa was the sports cruiser that could boogie it up with the supersports when the rider felt like it (and had the skill), and the Fireblade was just like that wild girlfriend every male has once in their life and lives to regret. Both are so fast I can't ever imagine using the full throttle anywhere except a race track, and even then only briefly.
The hard part is deciding which one I liked more. Other than sheer speed, both were so different that I just can't compare the two in any sane fashion.