I have a 98 superhawk, have had a yamaha 600(don't plan on buying a r6 or 600r if you plan on ringing the shit out of it, they tranny breaks really fast. Broke on mine at 7 thousand and on my buds at 14 thousand)and have ridin a 02 cbr600f4i. The superhawk is a much more fun bike for the street. Because it has a V twin, it gives it a lot of low end power and deffinetly sounds powerful and unique(compared to all the screaming 600s right now). Althought the superhawk was about as fast as the f4i it seems like when you finally get to the power in a 600 you are already breakin the speed limit, never really allowing you to feel your bikes power around town. I would deffinetly recomend a v twin sport bike, they are a lot more fun(a 600 would be a better beginner bike though).