My old liter bike has less HP than any of the new 600's. It has a steel frame, twin shocks, forks the thickness of a broom stick, skinny bias-ply tires, an air-cooled engine, two-valves per cylinder, an ignition curve done by springs and weights, and small carburetors.
But my liter bike has something in abundance that is never mentioned when comparing 600's and 1000's. Torque, and tons of it. My torque peak is at 6,500. That's usable all day long for the streets and backroads where I ride.
And I also rode the S1000RR. The brakes were awesome, and it was ungodly quick and fast, but my old Suzuki is way easier to toss around corners. If I had a rich uncle who gave me an RR, I would modify the handlebars to make them much higher, wider and further back. Then watch out.
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