[M_a_t_t]

My commute is ~24 miles. 6-7 miles is in town (13 lights and 9 stop signs there is construction right now, usually only 1 sign) and the rest is state highways (55 mph). I don't go faster than 60. Sometimes I go 40-50 at night (2nd shift so off at 1130pm).

Mods on mine are the handguards, light bar, topcase, givi sidecase mounts (don't usually ride around with them on), new rear tire (continental conti-something), skid plate, and Givi crash-bars.

Was there a windshield stock? First gear is pretty low on this one. There aren't any (maybe a few) gravel roads around here. I am doing ~6k RPM at 60 mph in 6th so gearing is low. When I was reading Craig vetters posts about his streamliner he said the FE didn't get any better until he adjusted the gearing (it was a helix with a cvt) so I think you are probably right about it being a major gain. I already bought and installed stock gearing though so I'm probably gonna get some useage out of it first.