Go riding with Tpoppa sometime, he rides a XB9 which has less HP than the 1125R, you won't be bored. On the back roads in southern Ohio I never thought I needed anything bigger than my old 600. Big HP is fun on the highway and maybe makes you not work so hard on the back roads if you don't scare yourself to death. I'm heading to Avon today to see if I can get them to up their offer for the Ninja 250 trade-in, they offered me $1,400 earlier this week.