What I basically said, was that the Busa under crosswinds, does not track as flawlessly as the literbikes -- If I’m beside or passing by a 53' Semi, or any large truck for that matter, on the Busa I find consistently that the bike gets blown around or tossed from the wind more than if I am on one of my literbikes. I don't mean to say that the bike gets tossed and blown hard, but whatever nudges the rider feels on it under these conditions, is definitely more pronounced than the lightweights. I have also found that I have more wind hitting me on the upper body on the Busa than the 1000's and this causes the bike to track less stable. The heavier bike in this case, is more unstable in these types of conditions than the lightweights (it is more twitchy). The same holds true for crosswinds on open road.
It's very simple, if I deliberately rock the bars at speeds on the Busa, she moves around, whereas on the lightweights, they don't really budge. Things like tar-snakes and lane changes over the cut in between the lanes are also more pronounced on the Busa and causes it to shimmy more. Headshake, while very minimal on any of these bikes is easily more noticeable on the heavier machine under less than perfect conditions.
Now, I weigh about 205 @ 6'2" so I am perhaps slightly bigger and heavier than the average rider. The reasoning behind the stability differences IMO, is due mostly to the research /design, balance and far newer technology present on the lightweight machines (the Busa is dated and needs to be revamped IMO). Riding the literbiike is the closest thing to riding on a rail at any speed up to max. These machines DO track noticeably better and are less affected by wind and road conditions than the Busa under the same conditions...and this is not only my opinion but that of most who have ever ridden one at length. Harsh bumps are transmitted to the rider more so on the lightweights but have noticeably less effect on the overall stability and shake.
I define stability as a combination of tracking under several different road conditions as well as panic braking etc... If you ask me what would rather be on when doing serious knee drag cornering, the lightweights are my preference. If you have ever come close to dragging your knee around a corner on a Busa, you know that the bike has a tendency to wobble and in some cases, quite violently -- enough to scare the living crap outta you. These new gen lightweights just don't suffer from the same things, they are made to push to greater extremes on cornering. On the Track (not the strip), no way can the Busa keep up with the literbike or a 600 for that matter, just because you can’t push them to corner to the same extremes. Just so you understand, I won't sell my Busa (except for another newer model) as I love the bike...it has the sheer TQ that puts a grin from ear to ear under most circumstances and she is like riding a couch...very, very easy and comfortable, but the tradeoff is the handling and stability. If you understood that I was pissing over the Busa, it was not my intention…I just called it the way I experienced the ride.
I ride about 25-30K miles a season and spend equal time on the 10R and the Busa...on short and long rides. My wife rides the R1 (too f-cking hot and uncomfortable for me), but it too is unreal on power, handling and stability.
Shifting hard at 10K under full throttle on the Busa, I get some rather interesting TQ steer and again on the 1000's, much less so...
'nuf said!