Funny thing, how a bike handles is probably very subjective. Two people can take the same bike for a ride and have two different opinions on it that are quite different. We are talking about pavement here and not dirt roads right?
One thing that surprised me was that in a very short period of time I had a chance to ride both a 1961 Norton Dominator 650 and a 1988 Honda cbr600 sport bike. I thought they behaved almost identically at over 100mph as far as the chassis geometry went. Both bikes were dead stable hands-off at any speed, you could not upset them.
I am sure with it's more modern and wider tires the cbr would ultimately find a great advantage on a racetrack, not to mention it has much more power than the Norton. If I had the money and storage space I would probably have a japanese sport bike sitting around to play with, but I don't so I will keep the old British sport bike that is easy to find parts for, easy to work on, and appreciates in value better than a bar of gold.