Osmosis, I have a Bavarian Money Waster R1200RT. A big twin with lots of torque. Switch off the ASC and it'll loft the front just like a sports bike, and handles pretty well to boot.
The main reason I bought one was because I have a pillion on about 70% of the time, and it's hard to find many bikes truly set up for pillion comfort. This one has it in spades.
Jabber, I'm sure the TRX850 is a good bike, but I reckon Yamaha spent too much research money trying to build a parallel twin to sound and vibrate like a Ducati V-twin, rather than a machine which stands on its own merits. And I wouldn't bother about taking a pillion. I think the TRX pioneered the pillion "pad" (less than 25mm thick). Having said that, Yamaha haven't built many dodgy bikes since the mid 70's (except the GTS1000A, which was a good concept, but failed miserably in the marketplace).
The VTR1000? - closest thing any Jap manufacturer got to a Duke. And a great bike. Did some awesome laps around Eastern Creek a few years ago. Capable of 240+, if you're game. Not too bad for a V-twin which originally went into production around 1997. The thing that killed it for me was a pizzly 16L tank.