That's more a centre of gravity thing in my experience - bikes that carry their weight up top are blown around much more than those that carry it low. A few years back I was riding through the Texas Panhandle with a friend on a late 90's Triumph - a bike with a high centre of gravity - in a strong crosswind. His bike was all over the place - 20 degree list and at times two carriageways widths to keep it straight, whereas mine - a Honda GoldWing - with all the weight low down didn't notice the wind at all.

Re big tanks - they're like part of an overlander's uniform. Nothing says 'the real deal' like a tank you can hardly see over. That plus soft panniers caked in an inch of mud and a laptop on the handlebars so you can blog as you ride. After all keeping the sponsors happy is your top priority

I've had a couple of 600 singles with large tanks (still have one in fact) and while they're unwieldy (the 40L one on my XR600 in particular) they can give you peace of mind. It's all very well saying that you rarely have to do more than 200 miles between fuel stops but I'm uneasy heading off knowing there's no fuel for 200 miles with a fuel range of 220 miles. That doesn't have to be across a desert somewhere, it could be a cross country trip at night. I think I only ever filled the 40L tank completely to the top three times but they were times where range anxiety was an issue. Fuel stations can be shut or shut down or out of fuel. The capacity to get to the next one is a bit of a comfort blanket. At the other end of the scale the 9L tank on my 125 means a stop every 70-80 miles - just in case you can't find anywhere open later on. You're not heading out anywhere remote with a range like that.