John, if you can get to New Zealand then you are welcome to take my ST for a spin. Just keep on the correct side of the road!
The combination of a cartridge emulator on the modified damper rod, and Gold Valves in the cartridge and some stiffer springs would be very good. I have used the CE's before (1986 VFR750) and found them to work pretty well. RaceTech have a justifiably prominent position in the suspension world, and I have invested in the technical book written by Paul Thede which provides some more understanding on the details. Their standard recipes are in my experience very close to optimum, and anyone who puts their products in will see a massive improvement.
I have had a lot of experience with modifying the cartridges and springs in my RF900, VFR800 and VTR1000, and I've spent quite some time disassembling, changing shims and reassembling to get a reasonable feel for what works and what doesn't to suit my riding style and conditions. Sticking a second cartridge in the ST kept me on the known path, and was also a means to keep expenditure reasonable as I did not buy RaceTech parts, but went to an independent specialist (Daugherty Motorsports) with whom I've worked in the past.
It is quite true that you don't know what you don't know, and until you ride other, differently set-up bikes you have no real basis for knowing whether what you have is good or bad or whether some other set-up might suit you better. This is however a slippery slope and if you are like me you will keep wondering whether just one more change would make things even better....How and where you ride makes a big difference to what might be your preferred set-up. If I rode a lot of freeway miles and few twisty roads, then I would probably have kept the bike closer to stock, but I don't live there (and I'm not sorry)
. It does make for a hefty tyre bill however as local riders get less than half the mileage reported elsewhere.