“2. You begin to get bored with the power given by the 2 valve per cylinder air cooled engine after you learn the fundamentals of riding on the street and realize you want either:”
Thank you for reiterating that grande old lye about out growing motorcycles.
Let’s just replace “2 valve per cylinder air cooled engine” with “250cc engine”.
There are a lot of people, serious riders, who really like the old 2 valve air cooled Ducks. They are very easy to work on and have been known to last a very long time in sport-touring applications. The engine has a great deal of personality. No, the Monster is not the fastest bike in its class, but since most riders don’t push their bikes to the 9/10ths on the street, a surprising number of riders are happy with their 600 and 620 Monsters.
Which is all moot, since the 696 makes 80hp now, which is more than the SV650 (sport or naked).
Now, will someone want to upgrade after a couple of years? Most likely yes. That is simply the way of motorcyclists; most change bikes every three years or so, and almost no one keeps their first bike for a long time (even if they tend to hold on to their bikes for very long periods of time afterwards).
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“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”