I've ridden sportbikes for over 25 years. My wife recently purchased her 1st street bike, a Honda CB300f. While I was breaking her bike in, I realized that riding a sporty bike in an upright position is an entirely different kind of fun - I LOVE IT! The way that you can zip around and the control that you have with moto style handle bars is pretty cool. After the break in rides, I rode my CBR600F4 and it felt really heavy and slow when riding under 70 mph, which is where the fun is (without getting tickets). I'm thinking that a Duke 690 or a Superduke 990 might be a good 'in between' bike. Does anybody have any experience on those two bikes?
I've ridden both and I would pick the Duke 690... All the power you really need in the real world. I would probably be happy the power of a Duke 390, but sitting on it at the dealer, it's way more cramped than the 690.
Doubt the superduke woukd have that light weight feel. 690 would get my vote because it would be a happy medium. I'd bet the 2016 husky sm690 will be even lighter though so id probably hold out at this point. 990 would be stupid fun but probably still leave you with tickets lol
The 690 is not a highway commuter. It will do it but is very uncomfortable at cruising speed. I had the enduro, SM wheels would have made the cornering even better on road. The power is very raw for a 'road' bike.
After putting more thought into this, I decided to make my old CBR into a naked bike instead. This bike has been in 'several' low speed crashes, and isn't worth anything to sell anyways. I used some bar mounts from an old WR250, fat bars from who knows what, cheap ebay headlight, and a trail tech speedometer. This bike is ugly but very, very fun to ride. The ram air is still functional. This is probably the best performing (under $2000) bike around.
