Upgrading your existing steed will be a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a new bike. It will also have the benefit of making your commuter perform better, not just when you're adventuring but also when riding to and from the office. If you're looking at purely getting better performance...
Sure, it's never nice to hear, but this sentence "He said it is believed the biker lost control of his motorbike after clipping the mirror of a car before colliding with the barrier this evening." - makes me think he was playing stupid games.
I sold my F800GS to Fireitup, for what I thought was a fair price. R69000 - they turned around and loaded it on their website for R89900 and it sold within 2 weeks. Granted, I don't know if they actually sold it for R89900, but still probably R80k plus. I think the market is there, people are...