Because a bike is essentially a tool that gets you from one place to another. I don't normally like to spend any more time than I have to doing that, particularly when I'm commuting.

Just to make it clear, by pushing it I mean making the shortest possible journey time without taking excessive risk. In some circumstances pushing it could be at speeds as low as 5 or ten mph, or it could mean using hard acceleration to pass a slow moving vehicle that's obstructing you when there's not a lot of room for the overtake. That's a skill best honed on a bike that isn't going to point the wheel at the sky when you give it a handful of throttle.

There's always other traffic around, even if if it's only light traffic, and gettting through it and past it is the real fun in riding street. If all I want to do is ride on the edges of my tyres all day I can book a track day. On a bigger bike than a 250 I would really have to book a track day. The number of times I can ride to the edge on the street on a 650 in normal everyday riding is tiny.

Rob