[Rickster]

Originally Posted by NCxM50

Actually, I can explain it pretty well I think. A friend I've known since high school has outgrown 3 bikes.
He scrounged, scraped and worked his butt off to buy a rebel 250 his junior year. It was great for back forth around town to work and school. Then he graduated and started commuting to U Mass in Boston. The bike could do the speed limit, but it just didn't have anything left once it got there. If he ran into a need for any acceleration, he was SOL. That, and the bike was so light that some of the not so well taken care of roads in the area caused him no end of pain. He really loved that little Honda, so he moved into a Shadow 750before he finished his first year.
He rode that 750 all through college, and for a couple years after. Once he moved out of moms place, him and his girl started taking regular rides into the mountains on camping trips, he was packing that bike to, or just over, the GVWR, AND he was riding it into the NH mountains, in some spots he literally had to fight to keep the bike at 55. He upgraded the bike to a VTX 1300.
He rode the VTX for about 9 or 10 years, it suited him fine. He got a little older, and started taking all his vacations on the bike, riding to rallies in Daytona and the Honda Hoot, etc. I suppose HE didn't really outgrow the VTX, but his wife did. She just couldn't take the long rides on it anymmore, and they bought a Goldwing a few years back, which he still owns.
Three bikes, over the course of 20 years, and you could definitely say they were all outgrown.

Sounds like your friend is the exception to the rule, and yes I would agree with you that he did out grow them, but most (not all, but most) riders that use that "catch phrase" don't even have the skills to master a 40 HP bike, let alone wanting to upgrade from a 100+ HP bike, to a 150+ HP bike.