SteveJ, I have heated grips already - it's one of the reasons I bought this particular bike - but I'll certainly be looking at Murph's for other farkles once I get some pocket money to spend. I knew I would need them, and actually had cause to use them two weeks ago on my first ride down from MN to IL - nice !!!.
Actually, what seems to be the problem right now - as the evenings are getting "crisper", shall we say - is wind at the back of my neck. Apparently the Rifle shield, while providing really nice, smooth air at the front, stops too far ahead of my head, so the vortex whips round and wacks me in the back of the neck. It gets nasty at around 55F. I have purchased an Under Armor "Neck Gator", which I can tuck up under the back of my helmet as a band-aid, but according to experts (and this is a shameless invitation for more opinion and experience!) the Cee Bailey shield is a lot better in this regard.
KenE, yes indeed, I like your description, it is indeed a pig in the parking lot. As I said earlier, she is tall and squirrelly at a standstill; the darn thing took me down six times while I was practicing for my Minnesota road test, and I promise you I used worse words than "pig" when that happened. The wheel size never occurred to me, however, as I haven't needed to start thinking about tires yet, so I'll look into the 17 inch world next spring.
In vain attempts to try to minimize this poor low speed performance before I tear it down at end of season and send the carbs off to SiSF for rejetting, I've run a can of Sea Foam and one of Iso-Heet through to deal with possible gunk and water, respectively. There has been a little performance improvement; though while it did nothing significant at low RPM, the mid range performance certainly has benefited: now she grumbles and chugs and growls up to around 2400, then, as if I'd thrown a switch, takes off like a raped ape to 4000 and beyond, if allowed to do so. It's quite ... exhilarating ;-)
But no, it doesn't end, does it? I'll have to start doing my own work too, just to make economic sense, given my long commute.
After a carb/cam upgrade, a windshield swap, the next thing will probably be a real cruise control. I have a simple throttle lock already, but that really isn't much good on the hills on my commute from MN to IL, which takes me over the hills in west Wisconsin. maybe the team here can offer opinions/recommendations on that too?