I didn't want to be drawn into this debate. It started with the 1st post just providing the info that there are cheap FZ1s out there for the same price. Just something to ponder as I have had few pms on this forum asking their opinion on the FZ1 vs FZ8.
Frankly you are not going to feel the difference if you ride a 780 cc and a 998 cc inline four in the lower rpms. Hell, you may not even feel the difference in the lower end of a 6 and a 1. I had the FZ6 for 3 years and it was a great bike. Yamaha took the right step in the right direction with the FZ8 to provide a sport tourer that had the perfect balance. But as with Yamaha's tradition of neutering all their bikes in the lower rpms, they did the same with the FZ8 with that huge hole in the 5-7k rpm. Ivan needs to look at this bike and make the FCE. I am curious to see the charts of stock vs modded FZ8s.
And I never tried to say that FZ1 is superior to the FZ8 from a competitors perspective. It is supposed to be, isn't it otherwise Yamaha wouldn't sell both at the same time. And the big difference is the 220 cc difference.