[650]

Well I'd love to know about this "the 650 has way more aftermarket parts". But tbh, it's boring going back and forth and - like many things in the world - people will argue the toss over stuff without ever conceding, so we might as well save our time and just agree to disagree. But having said that...I'll bite...

I'll take my years of use on both pointy and curvy 650's and both SV1000's I've owned, all in various guises of stock and far from stock, and remain strong in my opinion that the 650 (while having a fun bottom end in the rev range) runs out of puff almost immediately, looks malnourished, has incredibly poor quality, non-adjustable forks and one of the worst, bounciest shocks in motorcycle history, hilariously bad sliding calipers and has a speedo driven off the front wheel (not that it's a major issue, but makes putting an alternative front end on a slightly bigger ballache), is wirey and requires some pretty serious money thrown at it to make it something special and also isn't quite the handling masterpiece that people crack it out to be....and that the thousand makes up for all the shortfalls of the 650 by providing fully adjustable, non-sealed cartridge forks (pre 05) with very decent Tokico 4 pot calipers (that are easily made into immense brakes with a good MC such as a Brembo RCS19) a surprisingly good rear shock that mostly just needs a lighter spring for the bulk of riders (again, fully adjustable and can be revalved easily), an engine that has ridiculous levels of torque from the get go, right through to the rev line, looks like it's been in steroids and down the gym for 12 months non-stop, has a far stronger engine from a far better lineage, doesn't require any daft speedo wires or brackets and magnets to stick an alternative front end on...etc, etc etc.

It's the better bike.

And in response to thou not having the power of other thousands...well, the 650 rarely has power in the same range as other 600-700cc motorcycles. But like the thou, it makes up for it in low end power - albeit, the thou continues that power through to the redline and will stomp on most things when it comes to the twisties, assuming both riders are of equal skill, simply due to the sheer brute force of the engine anywhere in the rev range.

Good enough for ya?