A bit more Tour

[SVTNate]

I ride about 110 miles of freeway at 80mph, round trip, to ride 50 miles of twisty road.  Typical afternoon ride for me, when I can make time on a weekday.

Speed Triple.  

Wind protection is vastly overrated unless you're going on a multi-day ride, and going frequently.  Or if you live in a place with "winter", whatever that is.

[hugerider]

I ride about 110 miles of freeway at 80mph, round trip, to ride 50 miles of twisty road.  Typical afternoon ride for me, when I can make time on a weekday.

Speed Triple.  

Wind protection is vastly overrated unless you're going on a multi-day ride, and going frequently.  Or if you live in a place with "winter", whatever that is.

I live in Canada. There's definitely winter here.

[spd2918]

Go shaft drive sport tourer. ST1300, FJR or C14 and don't look back.  

This.  The Strom 1000 (had one) has the same issues you pointed out of no wind protection, flopping into corners, and the wife will hate its height.  I liked the bike, but a really love the power band on the ST.

[Rattlehead]

I see you’re considering a Hayabusa. I can at least give you my $.02 worth on that one since I own a Busa. I’ll try to break it down based on the criteria in your original post. Just for reference, I’m 6’0 w/ a 33” inseam so you have some idea of where I’m coming from when I refer to comfort type attributes.

-Wind Protection. The Busa has very good wind protection for a sportbike but is lacking compared to a touring bike. It all depends on your point of view I guess. I find that while a lot of wind does come over the windshield and hit my upper chest/ shoulders it’s very smooth and not turbulent. The Busa manages the air going around it very cleanly. My lower body seems to be in a nice pocket. I’m also quite comfortable riding in a “race tuck” for moderate distances in which case I can get completely out of the wind; very nice for cold mornings. The Hayabusa is by far the most comfortable bike I’ve ridden in a tuck. Most are just too short, seat to bars, and I feel REALLY scrunched. Also, since the riding position is “forward leaning” the wind hitting you has a tendency to “lift” your torso at highway speeds, taking pressure off of your arms, instead of trying to blow you off the back like an upright bike will.

-Seat and comfort. The seat on a Hayabusa is thick and well padded. I find it to be very comfortable. I ride an hour each way to get to work and the seat has never been even the slightest of problems.  
The riding position will be a big change from a Versys so that one you will have to decide for yourself if it suits you. The Hayabusa does have the forward leaning riding position of a sportbike but it’s FAR less extreme. Personally, I prefer this posture as it spreads the weight between my feet and butt instead of all of the weight being on my backside. Also, at speed the wind tends to “lift” your torso instead of trying to blow you off the back (as I mentioned before). I like this characteristic as it seems to make highway riding easier. The Hayabusa has a somewhat long reach to the bars so it definitely favors taller riders. I’m very comfortable with the reach but I’ve heard shorter riders complain about it before.

-Highway cruise. With a top speed knocking on the door of 200mph the Hayabusa is NEVER laboring at highway speeds. 60mph is roughly 3200rpm. A little vibration creeps in at 85-ish so if you do a lot of REALLY high speed riding you may want to regear to bring the revs back down into the smoother range (the bike has plenty of power to handle taller gearing).

-Falling into corners. This is most likely a tire thing. I personally like a bike that falls in quickly but it is un-nerving to some. I went to a 55 series rear tire on my bike to help in fall in quicker so I guess the Busa doesn’t necessarily have a natural tendency to fall in overly easy. I’ve never ridden a Versys though so I really can’t compare.

-Seat height. The seat height on a Hayabusa is very reasonable. It’s low by sportbike standards but still not cruiser-low. My wife seems to really like the passenger accommodations. The seat is wide and well-padded back there. She is short (5’1) so leg room might be an issue if your passenger is tall.

Some of the other stuff you said was important or was looking for:

Torque: yes, plenty.   The Hayabusa has idiotic amounts of power but it’s delivery is very smooth and VERY wide. There is plenty of power available ANYWHERE in the rev range. It's one of those "your never in the wrong gear" kind of bikes.

Tank size/ range. The Hayabusa’s tank size varies a little depending on year;. my particular model (2000) is 5.8gal. If you ride sensibly it will get some pretty darn good mileage so range is quite good. On my commute, which is 80/20 highway I average about 47-48mpg. On the open road I can max out my MPG gage, which stops at 50. I’ve checked the gage before and it is accurate so I’m confident in saying well over 50mpg is possible. That gives the bike an easy 250mi range. That’s more than enough for me as I’m ready for a stretch break in a car by 250mi.  

I know this is REALLY wordy but I hope it helps.  

[bucktownbilly]

Just glanced through this but did the street Tiger 800 come up?  Might be a still a tad tall.  Best of both worlds, grunt of a twin, top end of a 4 and smooth.

[Jetpilot5]

If you haven'y already checked it out, http://cycle-ergo.com/ can help with comparing the riding position of different bikes.  It's not a substitute for an actual sit or test ride and it's not the absolute authority on riding position as it doesn't take into account the width of the seat and tank and some other variables but it is a nice tool.  I entered your data and came up with the following.

[spd2918]

If you haven'y already checked it out, http://cycle-ergo.com/ can help with comparing the riding position of different bikes.

Awesome site.  Thanks for posting.

[hugerider]

I see you’re considering a Hayabusa. I can at least give you my $.02 worth on that one since I own a Busa. I’ll try to break it down based on the criteria in your original post. Just for reference, I’m 6’0 w/ a 33” inseam so you have some idea of where I’m coming from when I refer to comfort type attributes.

...

I know this is REALLY wordy but I hope it helps.  

Great post, thanks for your insight.  I have to admit, the 'Busa's a real contender, the only real strike against it (without having ridden it) is insurance. I don't have a quote, but I imagine it's considerably more than, say, a Concours.

If you haven'y already checked it out, http://cycle-ergo.com/ can help with comparing the riding position of different bikes.  It's not a substitute for an actual sit or test ride and it's not the absolute authority on riding position as it doesn't take into account the width of the seat and tank and some other variables but it is a nice tool.  I entered your data and came up with the following.

That's great, thanks for doing that.

[Dan K]

I ride about 110 miles of freeway at 80mph, round trip, to ride 50 miles of twisty road.  Typical afternoon ride for me, when I can make time on a weekday.

Speed Triple.  

Wind protection is vastly overrated unless you're going on a multi-day ride, and going frequently.  Or if you live in a place with "winter", whatever that is.

Wind protection also equates to weather protection, warm or cold.  Being able to hide in a pocket of mostly rain free air is nice, in addition to when it's cold outside.

Sold my FZ1 because I wanted better protection, which my Sprint provides.  Of course, I may not be saying this if I lived in Orange County (jealous...)

- Dan

[Giaka]

Sold my FZ1 because I wanted better protection, which my Sprint provides.  Of course, I may not be saying this if I lived in Orange County (jealous...)

- Dan

My commute is 120 miles RT (lane splitting freeways and 30x2 miles over the Ortega). I alternate between my Versys (with a large windscreen) and my ST1300. After a long day of work that 60 miles home can be fatiguing. I can honestly say I am MUCH LESS fatigued in the evening when I ride the ST. Wind blast is a mofo!

[Rattlehead]

Great post, thanks for your insight.  I have to admit, the 'Busa's a real contender, the only real strike against it (without having ridden it) is insurance. I don't have a quote, but I imagine it's considerably more than, say, a Concours.

Insurance varies so much it's hard to say what yours will be. I can tell you though that mine is $208/yr for full coverage (State Farm) so it may not be as bad as you think. I actually checked on insurance before I bought the bike thinking they'd "convince" me to buy something else with an astronomical quote. I could have fallen out of my chair when they told me just over $200/yr for full coverage with a $100/500 deductible! It made the "which bike do I want to buy" decision pretty easy (I was looking at several at the time).