Say Hav.....why do you prefer the '06's vs the 0'7's and '08s so much? Personally, I think the '06 looks better than the '07's with the fairings and the windscreen. I don't like the way how they have redone the fairings and windscreen. Just seeems that the older bikes looks a bit sportier. But I like the added instrument gauges and the ABS features that they have added to the newer models.
With respect to the 07-08 models I will tell you the first pictures I saw seemed odd to me as it appeared Yamaha had simply removed much of what made the bike unique in the realm of naked sportbikes. About 2 months ago I had the opportunity to actually see the bike in a dealer showroom and spent around 30 minutes going over it.
The first thing that caught my eye was the reduction in size of the fairing. It was lower, thinner (both vertical and horizontal) and in making this change Yamaha had removed the gills both right and left. This to me was the opposite of what the bike needed as the one problem I have found is a lack of stability at speeds in excess of 90mph in dirty air as the angle of attack on the entry ramps needed to be increased giving more frontal down force. In terms relative to the windscreen, reducing its size only allows more air by volume to encounter the riders very uneven shape which once again causes things like helmet buffet and an overall instability at higher speeds because it disrupts airflow. The 04-06 was bad enough without changing the windscreen to the likes of a double bubble race screen. The aftermarket screen does eliminate the buffeting and associated instability.
The introduction of improved brakes seemed a useless point as the 04-06 brakes could easily flip the bike in an emergency stop. The 04-06 Nissan calipers provided for reliability and to be frank, I only needed to change the pad material (now using carbon Kevlar) to increase the feedback from the brakes. I therefore didn't see the new calipers as being any real improvement, only a difference in methodology.
Many owners of the 04-06 had complained about the box look of the swingarm. In general terms they had felt it looked like some kind of crossover unit (dirt bike dual sport). Being used to dirt bikes I had no problems with this at all nor did I find any mechanical advantage to the new arm. To me this was simply a change in looks with no real advantage being present.
The 04-06 instrument cluster is awesome but I could see why Yamaha went to the analog tach. It made things much more user friendly to the in experienced rider who may be looking for that needle position when jumping all over that throttle. The experienced rider will often shift based on sound and feedback from the engine hence no real need to look at that tach. Rather, their eyes are on the road where they belong.
When Yamaha came out with the 2004 FZ6 it was a masterpiece of beauty and style placed in a 600cc naked package that to me was tops in the industry. At that time it was tested against the likes of the Honda 599 and Suzuki SV650. In those tests the FZ6 literally blew the others off. I did however find it interesting that the moto-journalists complained of the seat, buzzyness and a lack of torque on the low end. To me much of this could be attributed to there rider being overweight, a lack of understanding in that this bike eats up rrm and without it it falls on its face and a poor choice of ride shoes as tennis shoes don't cut it. I actually saw a detailed test of the Z750S and on paper the FZ6 took that one out too in terms of performance.
Now move on to the advent of the blacked out chassis. OK if you like mat black but what did it do to the overall aesthetics of the package? To me it took away from the true beauty of the machine and again to be frank, the engineers who went with this ever decorating or detailing out one of my rides. Add to this the blacked out mat finish wheel and Yamaha pretty much destroyed what was once the best looking naked on the market. At present, if I were looking for a bike like the FZ6 today I wouldn't buy it. The bike looks like a an afterthought of changes made to satisfy their desires to reduce production costs at all costs.
Since 2004, I have had zero problems with my FZ6. It has never been hard on brakes, had the problems associated with the TPS or counter sprocket and the throttle is dead smooth. The clutch friction zone is perfect for my style and I couldn't have asked for a more comfortable seat as I can blow off 100 miles+ effortlessly. So for me, any improvements Yamaha claimed to have made weren't improvements at all. Rather, in my humble opinion they simply reduced a beautiful bike to the like of more industry confusion.
