I dove back into the foray of "second" bikes recently as well with a Speed Triple. I loved 600cc sportbikes my entire life, but now that I've ridden the Speed, it's seriously hard for me to imagine going back to a 600 for anything other than a purpose built track bike. That's a bit off topic, but the 1000 Versys is a different category all together.
Seems like going from FJR to Versys you lose some of the sport that really makes the FJR what it is. A direct comparison is obviously the Connie. Aggressive cornering on the ADV style bikes has always scared me. You sit high, you ride high, and you add about 5" of ground clearance and 2" of seat height for what? I'd imagine 98% of those bikes never see dirt. Plus add some mushier suspension and less rake (?) and I cringe when I think about railing turns on anything with vague front end feel. It's like a 1000cc comfortable motard with bags...which doesn't sound bad actually, it's just the vague front end thing. Maybe that's just in the back of my mind, I haven't ridden one.
Even though the Speed has more power than a 600, it's 100% more useable, and 100% more fun. After owning that for 6 months and jumping on a Street Triple (I owned a Daytona for 5 years) the first question I asked myself was..."how did I ever think this thing was fast". Of course it is fast, once it starts making power above 6k, at that point the Speed is a half second from redline. I can't imagine hauling a 600cc bike loaded with gear into high elevations, it felt tremendously under-gunned on basic roads at sea level.
