My buddy has one and i got to ride if back to back with my 990. on paper the figures are almost exactly the same between the 2 machines.
got off mine and onto the FZ, not really impressed. it was fast enough, but in a sanitized way, not much character to it. the torque and HP are almost identical but it seemed the the SD was much more aggressive, instant, and raw. to be fair it was only about a 5 mile blast, if that, but i was happy to get my bike back.
he had the ECU reflashed on it, and has been saying that it has an instant on/off powerband but i just didnt feel it. it was fairly unsettled too, moved around quite a bit when pushed into turns, transitions.
i just didnt find it very exciting. on a side note, the front directionals were flopping around like a bunnys ears in my peripheral view and it was distracting.
youd think it was the second coming from all the magazine reviews, but i guess they are factoring in the bang for buck angle.

I did read some where that the front end is a bit vague but the bike is still good value I think.

Well priced bike with budget suspension like all the rest. You either get junk components on an otherwise awesome street platform, or great components on some silly race bike that is horrible for street use. KTM does it right.

I bought one this year and loved it. Yes the suspension was budget, but on rough roads like we have here, it was actually much better then on my Monster 1100 evo which could rattle your teeth loose. And much better then on my Superduke before I had it tuned in by a professional (previous owner didn't care of was 100lbs).

I felt the FZ-09 had more torque then the Superduke in the lower revs and would power wheelie much easier (not only in 1st but 2nd and even 3rd gear at times (that's in A mode, not sure what mode you tried it in, but if you didn't try the A mode, you didn't have access to all it's power. And I have a +2 sprocket on my SD, the FZ-09 was stock except for the Akra exhaust line.

Just imagine what it would go like with a bigger engine?

Like I said, it pulls more then the SD990, with about 120cc less, it's a Yamaha so super reliable and requires so much less maintenance (valves every 45000km for example). You can always have bigger engines, but overall, for the price, it simply can't be beat. When you can do power wheelies in 3rd, I don't really see how much more you can need. I've been over that race to power...it's just never ends as whatever the power you have, you will always get used to it, and I've had more fun on my MT-01 (90HP, 110ft-lbs torque) then I did on my Speed Triple that had about 135HP and 90ft-lb of torque). Power is one thing, character is another. The more character a bike has, the more you can enjoy while riding under 200km/h Is the FZ-09 perfect? No I sold it. But it was half the price I paid for my fully equipped Monster 1100evo, and it sure didn't feel like a cheap bike.

Your spot on there 007 power is not every thing I've been down that same road
I would like to get a MT01 at some stage but I probably should get a test ride first.

The mt-01 is just awesome its only downside was its weight (570lbs). If yamaha ever make a new lighter one, im buying even if its 20000$...but they would need to put it on a 100lbs diet

it was in A mode, but i just didnt feel the excitement, it certainly didnt feel as torquey than my 990, which also will power wheelie in third by the way.
i agree with the reliability that youre getting with the FZ, but i didnt set me on fire at all.

Power wheelie in 3rd gear on the sd990???! Whats your setup? I have a +2 on the rear sprocket and in 2nd gear it barely leaves the ground unless you cut the gas and roll back on violently, in 1st gear it's quite nice to power wheelie, but the FZ-09 was even easier to lift up, and that with stock gearing. On the FZ, it's even happened to get the front lift off the ground in 4th gear while in full acceleration (and possibly hit a small bump in the road at the same time, but the front lifted a few inches (I put about 10000km on the FZ and about 5000km on the SD, and the first thing I noticed about the SD, is it felt underpowered a bit compared to the FZ (that said previous owner didnt have it setup at it's best), since it's been maintained and tune updated, it runs like a champ, but still feel the FZ had more torque under 6000rpm. I really suspect what disappointed you the most about the FZ is the exhaust note and the suspensions. If it was stock, it sure is quiet compared to the stock exhausts on the SD. The SD is one of the very rare bikes on which I've kept the stock exhausts, they just sound so good, not too quiet, and not obnoxiously loud. Over the years I've noticed how much the sound is part of the "character" and excitement of riding a bike. That and compared to a twin, anything else feels "too" smooth. Thought the triples still have more character then inline 4s.

This was with the Akrapovic line, baffle in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnd7ZzMZUPM

Yes GoPro with a little Philips Voice recorder. I then put an external mic on the voice recorder place it into a soft rag, packed tight and in my back pocket so it's not in the wind.

Here's a test with the SD and stock exhaust. Best setup I've found so far. Only thing is you then need to combine the audio file over the video file, but not too complicated.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/448 ... erduke.mp4

Yeah that would be a dream job

From 05 up to 2010 I must of had your bug as I owned a 05 R1, 07 Hayabusa, 06 gixxer thou, 07 FZ1, 08 Speed Triple,
09SD.

When your ready you just need to move up to big brother the 1290. Don't take offence but I don't like the look of the 1290.
There is something about it that doesn't look right.