I was bleeding my RVF rad and noticed that coolant was freely flowing from thermostat through the top hose into the top rad. I assumed this would only happen when engine was up to temp? Engine heats up, thermostat opens, coolant circulates. To me free flowing coolant from cold indicates defective thermostat or am I wrong?

Yeah,
I'd agree with that. Sounds like your thermostat is jammed either part way open or fully open. I took mine out when I was having cooling problems and dropped it in a pan of water and brought the water up to boil to see if it was opening and closing at the correct temperatures. A new thermostat housing o ring was only a few pound to replace from rick Oliver.

Thanks Steve for confirming my suspicions, will take it out and check. Think I have a gasket somewhere too, so simple enough.