Thanks for the responses, especially about the ST. I went to the bike shop today, rode the Gixxer around the parking lot then immediately got off before even hitting the road. I determined in a period of 20 seconds that my ass would turn to mush within the first 100 miles...unfortunate, because it's such a nice bike. Dealer didn't have any FJRs (went to three dealers, actually) that were not automatic, so I didn't bother test riding one, although the MSRP was staring me in the face and I thought long and hard about the bottom line. They had an ST and I sat on it and really liked it overall, but the asking price was a little too high for me. In a couple years I will definitely look at another ST. Last place I went to had a white '06 VFR on the floor, I asked the price. Turns out they had a black non-ABS '06 in a crate they were trying to get rid of. Asked about the hard cases, the dealer had them available for installation. I got $1500 knocked off the MSRP and some other goodies along with the saddlebags. I did not expect to purchase a bike today, but the price and the feature set could not be beat.
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