so, i've been reading pretty much non-stop for the last day or so. true "racing" bred mx based machines are out. I simply live too far from the fun roads and i just have absolutely no interest in changing oil after basically every ride and valve checks/adjusts not too long after. My street rides consist of all day rides from east of Cleveland to near or into WV and back in the span of 12-14 hours and at least 3 of those hours will be spent on the highway. I do these types of rides on my 600rr (ok), RSVR (awful riding position for highway), 998s (worse than rsvr), 1125CR (comfy position, but not wind protection and shitty seat), and other similar bikes so I don't think I'll have much issue surviving the shitty ride on the highway. but the more straight up pimpin racing-type sumos will not survive the trip from what i've read. maybe i'm wrong. please tell me i'm wrong, i want an honest to goodness baller sumo, but i think it's asinine to do that sort of PM schedule for a street bike. therefore, i'm currently looking more towards bikes like Husky sm 610's, ktm 690 sm and smc (maybe even a duke), a converted XR690R, and others along those lines. they won't be track or race machines by any means, but they'll be up to the task of extended stints on the highway, a blast on the twisties, and the very occasional passes on the track with, and more than enough by my standards for hooligan-ing around, since I don't even know how to do a wheelie yet. Besides, most of my riding will be on the tracks again this year. Simply put, the bike is going to be almost all street, with track scattered in haphazardly. that all said... in NE ohio, husky has basically no presence, dealer wise (please correct me if i'm wrong. i'd like to be wrong). KTM has a dealer about 45 minutes away from me, so that's not awful. the husky 610 is a bit cheaper, new left overs can be had for about 5500 (not OTD), and I have no idea where i could even sit on a KTM 690 anything. I think they run around 6-7K used. People are selling older XR650R's for about 4K, but I haven't seen anything newer than a 2002, which sucks. maybe it makes no difference, but given the choice between a used 07 husky and a used 01 honda with fairly minimal price differences, i'll go with the husky. I'd LOVE to find a used ktm 690 sm/SMC/duke at a good price but apparently, all of them sold 3 months ago on SMJ. Any thoughts on bikes that compare to SM 610, KTM 690, etc? Obviously, I'm looking for something more street friendly, rather than track friendly.