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Now that the shock of the theft is waning and the insurance wheels are in motion, I'm starting to feel the new (to me) bike lust and lingering over want-ads/ebay in search of something that tickles my fancy. I liked the ZX6 but it always felt topheavy and unwieldy at low speeds to me compared to my EX500, so I start thinking lighter...and while I'm thinking lighter I'm thinking how nice FI would be and my eyes drift over the F4i. Now that seems like a nice bike, and there are lots in the want ads in the 5-6k range, which is a bit more than I'd like to spend but maybe I can find a deal. But I start reading about it, and it starts to sound like a shorter bike for a 6'1" rider (this always bugged me about the zx6) and being a full leathers kinda guy the whole hot seat issue turns me off a bit.
So I think maybe I don't need FI and now the F4's and ZX6R's start to tickle my fancy, they seem a bit cheaper than the 4i, around 5-5500 but I'm thinking that doesn't seem cheap enough to justify the loss of injection, I really like the idea of tuning the mapping using my laptop, I admit it I'm a geek what can you do.
Now I start to check out other bikes with fuel injection that are maybe a bit taller, the CBR929 catches my eye but they're all around 6500 with the low mileage I'd like and that's a good deal more than I can spend right now, plus I start to think what a liter bike will do to my insurance rates, and 85 horsepower was plenty for me before, why the hell do I want a literbike anyway?
So I think, ok I'll split the difference as I spy a 2001 GSXR-750 with 5k miles for 5500 and think, here we go, and I start to poke around. Ergos are reportedly a bit extreme, so I figure I'll see about sitting on one, checking it out...then I glance over the horsepower, christ on a kawasaki 120 rear wheel ponies?!?! At 365 pounds it's nearly 60 pounds lighter than my zx6 with almost 40 more horsies, that just scares the hell out of me. Am I off the mark here? I'm just scared I wouldn't be able to handle that kind of power to weight, to the point I'm nervous about even testriding a machine with that kind of get up and go.
Now I'm aiming lower and poking around at the SV650S, I know everyone and there mother is in love with this bike and the price is certainly attractive but...Shit, I'll admit it, it sounds goddamn posery but the half-faired look just doesn't do it for me at all, I know it's vanity but if I'm going to drop 5 large on a bike and plan on hanging on to it for a while, it's gonna be the kind of bike that I wake up in the morning, take the cover off it and just stare at it for a while engaged with it's plasticy goodness. The CBRS and ZXR's do that for me, the gixxer's to a certain extent, but the SV-S just isn't *me*, and so I resign myself to my poserboy fate and start highlighting the F4i's, ZX6rs, and F4's that are local to me, intending on checking a few out.
While I'm doing this, a particularly good deal on a 99 VFR800 catches my eye, and I think maybe a little pork around the edges wouldn't be a bad thing, maybe this bike is better balanced than my old ZX and will feel lighter under legs at low speed? The fuel injection has me intrigued, but I read that the early VFR's are kinda twitchy on the throttle compared to their F4i brethren, so I'm back to the F4i as my main contender, butt-warmer and all. Wish I could find a TT to try out, I've heard those triples are nice and smooth but there ain't any to be found and I've heard bad things long wait times for triumph parts and their price points are higher than I think they should be for a 600, plus could I deal with the insults of being a limeyrider? Probably, but they don't seem to exist in my price range so it's pretty much moot...
Then there's the old R6/YZF, the R6 seems pretty pricey for a non-FI bike, the YZF though...ahh but it's not really the step up from the ZX6E that I'd like it to be, and it still seems heavy, plus there don't seem to be as many around to check out, but I betcha my girlfriend would appreciate the seat on those, she's not gonna like the little asspads that come on the modern sportbikes I'm looking at. <sigh> too many bikes, no perfect choice.
So you see, I started my search out looking for the perfect F4i, and managed to narrow it down to an F4i, or a ZX6r, or an F4, or maybe a YZF, how about a R6, ooh those 929s are nice, what about a VFR, ooh scary Gixxer 7, what about a TT or maybe I could be happy with the SV-650S...It's gonna take me all year to check out all those bikes, so if you've been patient enought to read through this far of my mindless babble, what I'm looking for is some help, to maybe narrow my search down to 3 or 4 bikes that really "fit my bill", any suggestions or warnings about any of the above bikes would be helpful, and if you know of a good deal on one (I'm afraid I won't be seeing much in the way of $$$ from the insurance co, especially after they chunk out my deductible, bastards) send me a PM, I'll buy ya a
(Damn that's a long ass post, I type too fast for my own good)
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then west on Rt _ _ 
). There was a large performance difference between my bike and my friend's garden variety ZX6.
