Nice review of the bike. The larger wheels on the R do make it turn very well and the tourance tyres are very good on the road. Tank range is suprisingly good if you dont use full throttle everywhere,
but sometimes this just cant be helped.
Billy have you done any off roading before? The XT im sure will handle what ever you throw at it, but on stock tyres you might just need to take it alot slower than your friend on his CRF450 as its just an off road bike and will take any off roading at 100kph.
Glad you like your bike and hope you have many more kilometres of fun on it.