Ive always switched between Yamaha and Honda. Every person has a different story with each bike, and of course every guy is more than likely to be biased or defend his own bike's brand. I own the new r1 and r6 and they are both nasty bikes. I havent ridden the new kaw or zuk but i did ride the new honda and at 6'3" i dont feel comfortable. Main reason i bought my r1 was because it was the newest thing out and it was different. Plus everyone loves to comment on the exhaust note. If I could do it again I would still own the exact bike i have, but yet again i still havent been on a new zuk or kaw, never even seen the new suzuki in person. And the new Kaw just doesnt appeal to me whatsoever. But from the past kawasakis I have owned i never liked the overall build quality One thing I do like about Yamaha that other companies havent done is the fact that I can take a combination hex key set with me on rides and pretty much take the entire bike apart if needed. I always liked that about yamahas. From a reliability standpoint I will put Honda on top. My 2009 R1 blew up after 4k miles, luckily Yamaha sent a brand new crate motor and in 3 weeks i was back up and running and they even bought me a new back tire to replaced the oil soaked one. However; my friend with a cbr1000 has had to take his back in for numerous recalls and yes his bike does burn oil. Not sure how I would feel about a brand new bike using oil between changes.