When I was looking to buy my bike, I was pretty set on the sport bike genre, thinking that my bicycle racing background would make the sport bike position more comfortable. Well, every time I threw a leg over a sport bike in the store, something felt wrong. My feet found the pegs naturally, but they all (including the GS500) felt WAY low and forward.
Then I had a breakthrough…
I put the GS500 on the centerstand and got on the bike with BOTH feet on the pegs. Dramatic difference. Suddenly the bars didn’t feel too low, in fact they felt too HIGH. When you only have one foot on the peg and one on the floor, you can’t use your core properly, and you’ll have a LOT of weight on your hands. And it’ll feel wrong.
At the very least, have the shop floor guy hold the bike up for you so you can put both feet up. Your eyes will be opened too.
I did this with a couple guys I work with (one of which has been dead set on a Vstar), and he went from “I’d never want a sport bike” to “Hey, this is really comfortable.”