How do you ride a bike?

[Nelso]

After reading that, maybe swapping for a 250 might not be a bad idea

Everyone should learn to ride an underpowered bike fast, before getting on a modern weapon (often with heaps of mods) and relying on the ridiculously good acceleration and braking to get faster without learning to corner fast. That's why 250 production racing back in the 90's was so good for producing so many world class riders.