from supersport to swiss army knife!

My last 3 bikes have all been various generations of the gsxr 750. Awesome bike, light as a 600 but more power. The gsxr fits me like a glove and I like the styling.

However I am getting tired of the sportbike crouch, its not a problem at speed but anything else it becomes a pain. My back is starting to act up constantly, on or off the bike.

So the search was on for something different, more upright but still performance oriented. This led to test rides of the speed triple, s1000r, fz09, etc. All very capable bikes for different reasons, but honestly they just weren't right...s3 too heavy and clunky gearbox, s1000r....didn't wow me like I thought it would, too pricy. fz09, decent little bike but kinda hohum and needing work! I very nearly bought a tuono, I really grew to love the look of that bike over the last few years and its pretty hard to beat performance wise. But the v4 sound...I dont know why reviewers go nuts over it, it just sounds terrible to me. Looked hard at a used one here to keep the price point low, and he had an akra pipe on it....holy **** I thought my ears were going to bleed! Had to walk away from that one.

All along I was also eyeing the z1000 and as a last ditch option, the ninja 1000. I still really like the z but middling reviews and styling that was...interesting...led me to read about the ninja over and over again. I wanted an inline 4 that could do performance and some distance. A little more gas and tc...yes please. And the reviews just cant be beat.

So I pulled the trigger on a charcoal grey 2015 earlier this month. I was a bundle of nerves making that decision!

Immediately took it for a back roads run to seattle for the weekend. Initially I was amazed with how more comfortable and yet flickable it was. And powerwise it never left me wanting (although the breakin period is driving me nuts, I just cant keep it under 4k rpm!). However...definitely need to adjust the suspension, its set too soft for real twisties riding. And I began to doubt myself....what have I done, doubling my investment if the bike isn't really that much of an improvement over my g7, costing me more insurance wise and not really having the confidence in corners that my g7 had....?

I think that's just me second guessing myself and getting used to the new bike, but id appreciate any insight from anyone that has made the same move!


Overall though, I believe the bike really can do it all, so I tend to think of it as the swiss army knife of motorbikes. Spent some time removing decals and reflectors today in the garage and making a shopping list....