I'm not sure why Lars says the iron barrels are easier to work on. They are essentially the same bike until you get into the bottom end of the engine. The electronics, I supposed could be considered harder to work on, or more possibly harder to troubleshoot.
I think you just made my point for me.
Hmm, I'm assuming you mean they are the same, conceptually. Very few of the parts are interchangeable.
I'm considering all things, when I say that. No pressurized fuel system. The carb can be completely disassembled and adjusted with nothing more than a screwdriver. I'm also considering the tolerances of the engines. And I could be wrong on this, but it was my understanding that the older bikes are a bit more forgiving, tolerance-wise. The rings can be compressed with your fingers and shoved into the barrel, whereas the EFI has one of those odd springy rings, which might be simple enough, but I think requires a compressor at least. And the bike is a bit simpler (less to diagnose). No kickstand kill switch, no O2 sensor, etc.
I did say the EFI is more reliable, so you probably won't HAVE to do much work to it anyway.