I agree with an earlier post that a used FZ is the better starter bike as it also is less torquey at lower RPM's. My brother just switched from the FZ over to the STR and prefers the extra oomph at lower RPM's and more aggresive riding position, but agrees that the FZ is better for beginners...
The technical jargin makes this more confusing than it needs to be, but take that away and it pretty much says that lane splitting is illegal. Why do they make it so tempting to interpret the laws? They should try and be as direct as possible.
I ran into a similar problem on 2 different FZ6's and found that the hoses from the factory are just too short. Depending on how much space you need you can use bungies or twine from the tank's front mounts to the rear hand grips. This should allow enough clearance for basic maintenace. Not...