Yamaha FZ6

I have found a new bike that I want. (If I ever get the money) It really has about everything that I want in a bike right now. And this bike is the Yamaha FZ6. Believe it or not, the thing that won me over hands down with this bike was the center stand. Most bikes don't come with them anymore, and this makes it a lot easier for them to tip if you inadvertently park it on asphalt on a hot day.

Besides the center stand, this bike as a lot of features that won me over from the Suzuki SV650 and Kawasaki Ninja 650.

• Larger 5.1 gallon tank
• Digital speedometer
• Digital fuel gauge
• Digital temperature gauge
• Dual headlights (more visibility)
• 4 cylinders (smoother ride)
• higher seat height (I'm tall)
• comes in blue (the Ninja 650 doesn't come in a color I like for 2008)
• Has less fairing than the Ninja 650

And most importantly, the exhaust sounds super cool :P

The down sides are the following

• under seat exhaust (possibly hot, and less storage)
• battery under fuel tank (harder to get to than most bikes)
• $500 more than the Ninja 650 (although, I'd pay that much more for the smoother 4 cylinders, dual headlights, and digital display!)

Even with those down sides, the bike is still the all around winner. It has very little fairing, so the bike looks like a bike and not some plastic toy on 2 wheels. It's got a lower displacement engine (so that it won't be too powerful for my novice skills). And I really think it'll save me gas money. Of course, the time it would take me to repay $6,999 on gas with 20MPG savings would be astronomical. But still... it's a cool bike :)