Well, it will be like the Gen 1 Fazer - same architecture but differing in some ways like the crank weight will be more (not many details as yet) - but the reckoning is 199 kilos which is pretty light in this day and age given how much catalytic converters weigh. Oo, I just checked and it does have the same bore and stroke as last year's R1 not the 2009 model. They've jumped a generation because the FZ1 was based on the previous R1. This one is the current bike. Lovely.
The tank range thing - well, I actually ride bikes. I do around 35,000 miles a year which is why my Gen 1 is just about to top 150,000 miles, the poor old thing. But even if I was a Sunday rider, I would still despise wasting time filling bikes up as much as I hate the forced wait at supermarkets. And that's what filling stations are these days. The real issue is that if you're on a ride out, if you want to stop, you want to be free to choose a nice place not be forced to stop at a bloody filling station. And if you use a bike for commuting like I do, a small tank means a trip to fill up every single day. It drives me up the pole.
The Gen 1 certainly feels top heavy because of the 21 litre tank and I really feel it when turning in or stopping though, but IoM TT bikes tend to tuck it lower under the seat and I just don't understand why bike manufacturers can design 200 bhp machines and yet not work out how to make a larger tank fit and/or look good. Of course, I know the answer really - it's simply because the average biker who does 5k miles per year and doesn't need it. They're not real bikers. They're just posers with a Sunday toy. That should get the cat amongst the pigeons!
And lastly, the Gen 1 when it came out was over £8000 quid. I'd bought a brand new ZX9-R the year before for £7000 so the the original Fazer was never a cheap bike. And if this one is the MCN suggested price of 10k, that's a mere 2k price rise in 15 years. Now that's a bargain.....
It won't be. I reckon it'll be more like 11-12k at least.