poorbastard wrote:I-K I have a question, and it's specifically your opinion I'm interested in.
Taking all this into account, is it better to have a 900F for this period or a 600F, will the 900 be too much and will I grow bored of the 600?
Well, I haven't ridden either, so I can't talk about the sort of riding experience they offer directly; though, being Hondas, they'll probably be very efficient and polite. Honda stopped selling the Hornet 600 in Aussie in, ummm, 2001, and wasn't having much luck selling it before then, so there's bugger-all of them around, and the sort of sensible, commuting owner they attract tend to mean that few of them come up for sale because the people who have them hang on to them, and those that do get priced unrealistically because the people who have them don't tend to keep much of an ear to the used bike market.
Conversely, the Hornet 900 has sold really well since it lobbed around. Finding one of them for a good price is going to be a lot easier than a 600, not least because Honda let them go cheap from new. Ratmick's got one, Strika's had one. They should be able to give you an idea of what they're like to ride.
What's your budget, anyway, and what sorts of insurance quotes are you getting? I'm prejudiced against comp insurance because I see it as a ripoff and prefer to just spend the money which would otherwise go on the premium on keeping a second bike on the road. It fills the same purpose as insurance, but leaves you with something you can sell and make some of your money back if you need to.
Which brings me to this bit,
the bike has to last 5 years as i promised myself a sports bike at 25 and am certain i will not upgrade whatever i buy until then.
Consider this, for example... if you spend the next five years on a Hornet 900, when you do graduate up to a sportsbike, you won't know how to set up the suspension, because the Hornet doesn't have any adjustment. That's one big aspect of riding you'll be more stunted in than you need to be. Rather than just hang on to a middle-of-the-road naked, keep a stash of money handy and a roving eye out for anything which might be cheap enough and give you an insight into another face of riding.
Find a cheap XR400, buy it and try riding dirt.
Find an old R6 that's been down the road and is going for four grand; buy it, gaffer back the flapping fairing and there's your intro to sportsbikes right there. Throw it down the road and you'll sell it on as a "trackbike project" at less of a loss than the excess on an insurance claim'll be.
Find a VTR1000 that's got a million kms on it and which nobody wants to buy because of it; there won't be anything wrong with it, so buy it and find out about the V-twin thing, see how you like those apples.
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