I've basically come to the same conclusion in the last couple years. My last two bikes have been behemoths (Yamaha Road Star 1600 and Kawasaki Concours 14), and while each has had it's benefits I never found either to be anywhere near as fun to ride as my old Kawasaki EX500 or Vulcan 800A due to their size and weight. In fact, even before I bought the Concours 14 I really wanted a sub-liter class bike - something in the 750-1000cc range. Unfortunately at the time (and still to this day actually) there was no such thing as a proper middle-weight sport touring bike with standard hard luggage, a comfortable/neutral riding position, and adequate protection from the elements. The old Honda VTR750/800 Interceptor was about as close as it got, but the ergo's on the VTR were too sport-oriented for my liking and I really didn't care for Honda's optional hard bags. While I still don't see my ideal solution being offered by any manufacturer there are some good options out there that can be made to suit my needs... The Triumph Bonneville's and Tiger 800's are appealing, as are the BMW F800's. The Suzuki DL650 and the Kawasaki Versys 650 are proven performers. The new Honda CTX700 is another possibility Ideally what I would really like is a Goldwing Lite, or a full fledged middle weight touring bike that offers most of the bells and whistles of the bigger bikes but in a more streamlined and lightweight package. In fact, if Honda were to take the old 800cc VFR Interceptor V4 engine (or even the old Flat-4 Wing engine) and build a modern aluminum chassis around it with the hard luggage, full fairing, Lazyboy seat, cruise control, good suspension, etc and offer it for around $15k I'd be the first one in line to buy one. But no, these days anything even remotely resembling that has a lathargic v-twin engine in it and handles about as well as a canoe in Class 4 rapids. The old adage still holds true... It's always more fun to ride a slow bike fast than it is to ride a fast bike slow.