Depends on your definition of "usefulness".
I commute on a 19 year old gixxer 750. We're talking 40-80 minute commute times in stop and go traffic here. She does just fine. The only minor issue I have is that she tends to over heat when standing still due to all of the freakin' plastic covering the radiator and the engine. That's nothing a manual fan switch couldn't fix, though. I went fancy with the switch and that mod cost me $1.50
Is it as easy to ride as a ninja 250 in traffic? Not quite. It's larger and heavier, for one thing. The seating position doesn't lend itself well to laziness either. Gotta be fit and sharp to be able to hold a leaned over position while crawling in traffic for 40 minutes without getting sloppy. But it sure is nice not to have to downshift everytime I want to cut someone off, though.
