also ducati's and v-twins are great to ride as you can feel the input your right hand has on the tyre - you can usually drive a little earlier out of corners rather than coast around which doesn't involve the tyre in actively gripping. take a track day and learn loads - do a wet track day like i did last year and you learn what an asset it is to feel the drive from the engine to the tyre.

Jap bikes are quicker steering but i find to road riding its very unstable or at least it feels that way.
Im very very happy with my 749s, left my friends for dead on the Camper sands road. which was a harder to do on the GSXR750.