Whoa there tiger. You should ask away. You should get all the information you can. But you need to think about everything that everyone you ask is going to tell you. There’s been quite a few things in a few posts that show a level of immaturity. Not trying to be harsh, but in your intro, why is a mustang the only good car for you? In this post above, the hoping that someone will endorse your choice on getting a bigger bike, the hoping to show enough proficiency, the hoping that your intended use somehow makes your choice in a bigger bike a better choice. Those are all signs that you’re not quite thinking this through and just hoping for validation on what you want. Age pretty much has nothing to do with it in my book and while it’s good you’re getting all the info you can and willing to listen, it’s more of the processing of the information that worries me. I’m not out to nazi you and tell you not to go for a 650r, but I don’t recommend it for you based on a variety of reasons.
The first part of my post above wasn’t really geared toward you either. It was geared towards the if you’ve taken the msf, then there’s nothing wrong with the 650 that someone else posted. I should’ve been clearer about to which points I was addressing to whom. There’s lots of things that are harder to do on a bigger, more powerful bike like manuevering at really slow speeds. Hell, it’s hard to keep a bike going straight at 3 or less mph, much less turning/uturning a bike at that speed. In heavy traffic, you really might be going that fast, erm… slow! My riding consists of a lot of different scenarios. From negotiating parking lots full of shoppers/cars, to open freeways, stop and go freeway traffic, city streets (like san fran), backroads which may or may not be inhabited by animals, pedestrians, bikers, other motorist and which may be moving at a decent speed or stop and go, construction, weather, etc. You will be doing your fair share of slow speed manuevers which are harder to master on bigger bikes compared to smaller bikes. The techniques are the same, but oh boy are they different feels. I’m not trying to make you feel bad or make you feel stupid, I’m just trying to stack the odds in your favor.
/me gets off soapbox now
—
If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…