Hi mark
I tried to soften the bike basically , from what is a balls out hard revving roadster into something closer to the gen1. Its difficult tbh basically because the engine is designed to produce big power , albeit fairly high on up in the range.I could do nothing for the tank range, though spot on fuelling helps give decent mpg when at touring speeds. For example, I went to austria this year and dek came along with his ( extremely) modded gen2. At each fill up we were putting in identical amounts of fuel, so our mpgs were identical.The gen1 has a bigger tank, so tank range is better.- at 45 mpg the gen1 will run to nearly 200 miles to empty, the gen2 150 ish...OK in the week with plenty of petrol stations about , might be more of an issue on a sunday in rural france ? I also once recorded just 90 miles to reserve on my FZ-1 on back road riding ...yikes...
Suspension wise I did soften it off, and I am well at the heavy end of yer average FZ-1 rider. I also got the seat modded completely by Tony Archer of Huddersfield.I could do nothing to the welded on grab rails which spoils soft panniers fitting right. I did fit a ventura system though, which works very well...Handling wise I think the gen2 is sharper, but my K tech suspended gen1 is comfy with almost the same handling.( at least for road work).... I think for me the excellent mods which have been developed for the gen1 make it easier to make a gen1 sharper , than it is to make a gen2 " softer" if you know what I mean...but it is a personal choice, so horses for courses. I think you also need to include the wow factor since a decent gen2 does look much more modern than any gen1...so if you only had one bike... well I wouldnt knock folk for buying a gen2 and living with its ideosyncracies.
Engine wise the best mod is the FCE, which really makes as much diffrence IMO as a stage 1 jet kit to the gen1.Fitting a PC3 will get the mixture spot on, and improve power all through the revs. But for me the FCE gave biggest gains in low to mid range, which is what you want yer touring bike to do.There have been numerous developments for the gen2 since I had mine, but none can change cam characteristics etc, so you still have a bike which dont do that much below 6k rpm.Whereas a full monty gen1 is really producing big torque from as little as 4500 revs.And as a full monty can get around 138 at the rear wheel...does the bit extra on a gen2 really count for much at say 12k rpm....on a touring bike ??
What stops me buying a gen2 is IMO this relatively small power diffrence, the shortcomings listed above, and the huge new cost now of an FZ-1 ( list price now £11k)...at that price there is a massive list of much more exotic/ diffrent bikes to choose from...maybe none of which " need" all these mods doing to them to " sort it out"...meanwhile you can still buy very cheap low mileage gen1s, pay the obligatory grand on the essential mods and have a magnificent sports tourer for £4500 or less! You really have to want a new FZ-1.....BUT if you can pick up a nice low miler second hand FZ-1 for around £4k mark....maybe the ball is swinging the other way ???