I bought a 2006 a few months ago and love it. It is top heavy and very tall as was said but that is not a problem on the road once I'm rolling...though I'm sure it would be a big problem off road (have not taken it off road as I have a DR650 for that). I'm 6'1" and have a 34" inseam and don't think I'd want to ride it if I were much smaller. The 1-2 and 2-3 shift are very notchy, higher gears are better. The clutch pull is light and very smooth, from what I've read that is because the 2006 uses 1050 cases. I swapped the vario screen the bike came with for a low Cee Bailey and no longer suffer from buffeting. A very comfortable bike for solo or two up riding. The instrument lighting is poor in stock form but I was able to improve it by using LED's, red for the temp and fuel gauges and tach, green for the speedo (will try green for the tach too)
The power band is excellent, from about 2000 to 9000 rpm and the engine howls most wonderfully at high revs and has a burble on the overun that sounds great to me. Am completely sold on triples for bigger bikes in general now that I've owned one, love the feel and sound of the engine and it does not bore me like the one four I've owned (a K100 FWIW). The back roads are poorly maintained and very rough where I live and the Tiger handles them very well, am no longer getting beat up like I was in my Monster.