new to me FZ6

[ifiddles]

so I currently ride a cruiser (500 cc) and want to get a sport bike...bf suggested a sport touring as they're a little more comfy and not as expensive on insurance...went on kijiji and found tons of Suzuki SV650's, Ninja EX6s and Yamaha FZ6s...want to go to a dealer to sit on a new model as I am quite short (5'4" with a 29" inseam) and worried about touching ground...based on specs I found on the internet, looks like I should be ok as the 2005, 2006 and 2007 models are quite similar to the cbr125 seat height that I had for 3 months before my cruiser...question I'm asking is for general feedback on the bike and specifically those model years...pros and cons...I already checked with insurance and it's well within budget (in fact, even a brand new FZ8 is within budget for insurance but not on the bike)...thanks...

 

[PFD023]

I have an 05' FZ6 and love it. Lots of power for a 600 (98hp) and pretty darn comfortable. Extremely reliable machines. Seats suck though....might want to consider an aftermarket one. I went with an airhawk cushion. I prefer the 05 and 06 for styling myself. Either way great machine, comfortable for long rides, easy to handle and enough power to keep you interested.

 

[regder]

My '06 FZ6 is a few hundred km's away from 100k km, owned it since 4k km. So far it's been pretty damn reliable, nothing really out of the norm except for maybe the steering bearings which were shot at ~16k km. The rest has been all pretty common stuff for the mileage. Probably the same holds true for any similar Japanese bike.

The model to get is the S2, which are the '07-09 model years. It has better gauge cluster, better swingarm, better front brakes, better fueling, updated fairing, and a few other small things. For the most part the bike is unchanged from '04 to '09. '06 introduced the black frame/engine/swingarm, '07 is the aforementioned revision. Otherwise they're all pretty much the same.