Beginner bike, 600vs1000?

I'm looking for my first bike and I'm not sure what would be best for me. I have ridden and raced dirtbikes all of my life, and the past 4-6 months I have been riding my friends 2001 honda CBR 929. This was the first and only sportbike I've ever ridin and I have gained confidence on it but I'm not sure if it's the right bike for me. I think that I would be better off by getting a 600 since just a few months on a bigger bike isn't alot of experience to jump right up to a 1000. I have taken the MSF course and have also purchased the best helmet and jacket I could afford. My friends have told me great things about the R600-1000 bikes and also about gsxr's but since I only have a little experience on a CBR I could use some suggestions.  

While your dirtbike background is great to have in making the transition to street riding, and it's great that despite your background you still saw fit to take an MSF class, riding on the street and dirt are still two entirely different animals. The biggest difference is that you don't have to deal with errant car drivers when you're out in the woods or a motocross track.

The reason I point that out is because until you gain experience, it's way too easy to get carried away with the velocities that a literbike like the CBR929RR can propel you at. And I can guarantee that you won't learn as quickly (or even as much) about riding a sportbike if you start off with a 1000. Since you've got a dirtbike background, a good analogy would be this: it would be like a dirtbike newbie trying to jump on a 450 (or even a 250) and work his way up the skill ladder. Sure, he might get to the higher rungs, but it'll surely take him much longer than if he'd started off with a smaller machine to understand all the riding techniques and how to apply them to get the motorcycle to do what he wants it to do.

You will gain much more enjoyment and improve your riding skills much quicker by opting for a 600. If you indeed have many years of racing dirtbikes, then you shouldn't have trouble starting off on one of the 600s, such as the CBR600RR, Kawasaki ZX-6R, Suzuki GSX-R600, etc.  

Yep, Kento has you covered good luck have fun  
There are worse things than death cowardice is one of them.

Absolutely.  I agree that a 600 would be better.  The power tends to show up later in the RPM's and it won't get away from you quite as suddenly as a liter bike will.  My Yamaha R6 doesn't start making really good steam until around 8-9K, whereas the various liter bikes start pulling hard around 5-6K.  Just my $.02.  

My first sport bike bought last May is an 04 RC51. I am 62 years old, haven't ridden anything for over 20 years and after 1900 miles,I'm down to maybe 1 inch of chicken strip. It's all about throttle control and respect. The torque of the RC let's me lug it a little through the corners so that's cheating some I guess.  

The difference is that a 62-year-old is far more likely to think logically and have some respect for the motorcycle's capabilities than a 20-something-year-old with a superiority complex (not to imply that the original thread starter was this, but pointing out that most new sportbike riders are in that younger age bracket).  

I agree with Kento on this point. In my experience riding, I've never heard of an older person 40 and above say hey I'm going to get a GSXR1000 or R1 as my first bike. Not saying this couldn't happen but I've heard many more younger guys 20'-30's say this to me when we've talked bikes. Of course I'd recommend something more beginner friendly as a vision of a newbie on a 1k is scary.  

Riding a litrebike is like riding a CR 500 on steroids at full throttle just rowing through the gears to go faster or to slow down. its that intense. I read another annalogy on another forum about noobs picking litre bikes and it went something like this..........."you can go buy the fastest trickest racing snow ski's, but if you don't know how to ski to begin with, they will do nothing for you but hurt you"
Yea....it would be cool to feel all that power accelerating and all, but get into the corner and slightly too much throttle will drift the rear out from under you..... and I mean SLIGHTLY TOO MUCH............Bad choice my friend... Have you even ridden a 600 yet? start out with a Triumph 675 and go from there, it may be a handfull even.