Hi Brandon,
To me, the two bikes you mention cannot be compared, at all, as far as performance goes. However, there are a couple of differences I would like to point out.
First, lacking the information as to whether this is a new or used bike, and where you live. The 09's delivered to the states, did not have lights on them when they were sold, stupid federal law that prohibits the sale of non epa legal bikes to have lights on them.
Second, while this is a debated subject, if you are going to do a lot of tarmac riding, you may need to consider putting a cush drive rear hub on the bike to lessen the impact that road riding has on the transmission. There was a thread here on the UHE a while back where several folks were debating this subject, but, if you notice in any of the parts books all the FS or Super moto bikes come with a cush drive. Some folks do a lot of tarmac work with their non cush drive hubs without drama, and there have been some who have broken teeth on the most commonly used gear sets in their trans. I believe the jury is still out on the 09's on up, as they have a dampened clutch basket. As of this writing, to the best of my knowledge, there has been no transmission failures of any kind on the 09's forward, and I know a lot of folks are heavily dual sporting these bikes.
As far as reliability, the jury is in on this one. There are many reports of folks doing hundreds of hours, 500, before needing any real attention. Member Dustbite on this site runs a tour business down in Portugal, and has four 09's two 450's and two 570's. All of them went essentially 500 hours with nothing more than regular maintenance, before needing piston and rings-and that was it. Everything else is still in service on those bikes. The only "issue" on the 09's, was that some people had trouble with a noisy cam chain tensioner. I have 100 hours on my bike and do not have that issue. In 2010 there was an updated cam chain tensioner from the factory, and we have had no complaints since. Some on this site went to an aftermarket, dirt tricks I believe, cam chain tensioner for their 09's.
The only other issue that people had with these bikes was the smallish gas tank/ range. This has been solved with 70 Degree Racing's sub frame fuel tank.
http://www.70degreeracing.com which adds another gallon of fuel.
To Codemonkey's point, the FE's have a wide ratio transmission. If you were to stick with the stock gearing of 13/52, I think you will find that the bike will cruise effortlessly at highway speeds, yet still has the low first gear, and small steps between gears in the lower gears for all of that single track you are riding. If you were going to go on a long mainly dirt road type of trip, you can simply throw on a 14 tooth counter sprocket.
With a brand new 09, that has not been touched, you will find that you will need to cut a link out of the chain, as the axle is so far back that as soon as the chain takes a set you will be out of adjustment. However, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you simply increase the rear sprocket size to a 53 tooth. Supersprox makes a dual compound sprocket in this size, as well as sprocket specialties. This will give you back chain adjustment, and will keep the rear tire from getting too close to the mud flap if you toss on a 14 tooth for that big trip. I had gone to a 13/50 combination, b/c most of my riding is in the desert. But, what I have found is that while this set up works pretty darn good, the gap between 2cnd and 3rd increased too much for those conditions where one would be using those gears, 2cnd too low, and 3rd too high.
The last thing I will mention is the suspension, depending on your weight, you will probably have to go up at least one spring rate front and rear, as the bike is delivered sprung too softly for anyone of 170# or greater in street clothes. These spring changes completely change how the bike feels............for the better. And you will also benefit greatly from a valving change as well.
Hope this helps with your decision,
Dale
