leathers (having just returned a GPZ900) was one such occasion. Things have come to a pretty pass when the owner of an MZ125 pulls up beside you and curls his lip in disdain.
The main reason that people buy factory customs isn't because they are cheap, practical or economical - they're no more so than other types of bike of the same capacity. The reason people buy factory customs is that they like the styling - they think factory customs look nice. Now, you and I might find this risible, but consider this: think how much less cool we'd look if everyone else rode around on RC30s in matching Kushitani-leathers and Shoei helmets. If everyone was blessed with good taste we would no longer be the arbiters of style that we like to consider ourselves.
Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder, one man's meat is another man's Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, and all that, so I suppose we should try and be a little more objective. To begin with, you have to remember that Japanese factory customs are styled for the American market and therefore have to look as much like a Harley

They could be worse . . . I just can't work out how

I know I shouldn't... I just can't help myself. I know it's a major flaw in my character, but that's the way I am.
To me it's a bit like being caught by in the act of buying a Kylie Minogue poster-magazine in W H Smith by someone you admire and respect. It's like having gold-plated dolphin taps on your avocado Jacuzzi and taking Lambrusco to a dinner party. It's like putting a Carlos Fandango body kit on a Bentley and listening to Richard Clayderman Plays Andrew Lloyd Webber's Greatest Love Songs on its stereo. It's the height of bad taste, and that's why I feel acutely embarrassed riding around on an EN500 (and to a lesser extent the XV535). To me this sort of motorbike is appallingly infra dig.
As I said, I shouldn't feel this way ... I just can't help it. As a motorcycle journalist I should, and will, give an objective appraisal of two middleweight factory customs, but that doesn't mean that I have to find them aesthetically pleasing or feel glad to be riding them. Just because this is my job, it doesn't mean I have to enjoy it. There are times when I wish I was an accountant or a lion tamer, and riding back from Kawasaki on the EN500 dressed in full racing

The XV535's riding position is comfortable, but better suited to short riders

The EN500's riding position is laid-back and very uncomfortable unless you're a very strange shape