Took my Busa with the twisty setup for a perfect hour loop yesterday, and right before I watched a YouTube video.
It was a review of the new Porsche 911 S/T which I guess is their new super stew of best parts and costs over 300 Grand. But is apparently one hell of a great sports car to drive. And the similarity between the reviewer's happiness at driving the ultra sports car was EXACTLY the same way I felt about my lightweight gen 3. The exact same emotions. So maybe that car is the four-wheel equivalent of a gen 3 setup for twisties.
I've decided that public roads are no longer variable. There is a set speed limit over which it's simply dumb to ride. Too much gravel and too many idiots behind the wheel in my experience. Now that speed limit is still quite fast as multi-inertial ABS braking can let you avoid worst case scenarios coming around the curve. My familiarity with my gen 3 is now high enough that I can basically ride quite fast and comfortably at about 95% of that speed limit, and doing so is exhilarating and fantastic. Vehicles in front of you are little more than trees you can slide around with a little work, and they tend to pleasantly bunch up so that once you get past them the road is yours.
And I really don't care if the busa is 25 years old. The way I am riding, I don't want 200 horsepower and 90 lbs of torque. I want that 110 lbs effortlessly pulling me away from every apex, on tires with so much grip (Bridgestone s23s, 36lbs cold in the rear, 34 in the front) sometimes the engine lifts the front tire and moves it over a foot inside the turn for you. With electronics set at 1 out of 10 that keep the rear from spinning. More power than I need on tap at all times. Saw Jeremy Clarkson also on YouTube say something that really resonated recently. He was doing some track comparison with Richard Hammond and said, about lap times, "If you've got more than 500 horsepower, you don't drive as quickly. It doesn't make sense but it's true." I've also recently seen similar comments about Cobra builds. The amounts of power that are available now exceed what you will really ever use or want. I'm not so sure that's not exactly the current state of sport bikes.
Granted I wouldn't mind riding something with a modern V4, but I'm so happy with my 1340 unit it's only a mild curiosity at this point. Look at the happiness of this guy. EXACTLY how I felt setting out on my ride. Everything letter perfect and more than you need. I didn't know you could be this in love with a motorcycle!
*+1 rear sprocket that you could argue about but I would say I did notice the difference (just slightly shorter gearing).