"I've ridden the TBA &, was not remotely impressed with the performance; felt quite gutless in comparison with the SM."
No offense Lew, but unless you've got one of the new '05 SM's, you're riding the same "gutles" bike we America owners are riding. Sorry but going from a 16t to 17t sprocket is not THAT much of change (I went from 17t to 18t for open highway riding, and it lowered RPM's a tad but didn't change the bike into a different bike), and otherwise the bikes are identical, other than the SM is carrying a bit more weight than the America due to the extra brake gear. And with proper tires (admittedly the America comes from the factory with crap, which can be fixed easily with some Avons), the handling edge is also no longer evident.
