Today, I thanked the seller for all his time and letting me do a test ride and told him I was not going to buy his bike. Then, after he left the breakfast restaurant, I discussed my experience with a couple of other guys and the club treasurer who had lent me two seats to try on that bike. Both agreed with me that the bike is buzzy at elevated rpms, and the technical guy* said that can be cured by changing the front sprocket to push the rpms at normal highway speeds down. All three thought the asking price was very high - ridiculous was one response. The tech guy who had owned a 700GS agreed the instruments were difficult to read. All in all, it was nice to have confirmation of what I noticed on the bike.
*he was a mechanical engineer and is v. knowledgeable about bikes.
*he was a mechanical engineer and is v. knowledgeable about bikes.