What is considered the most reliable street bike?

Im looking to get a 2005 Kawasaki Ninja zx 636, or a suzuki katana 600. I hear that these two brands are not as reliable as honda or yamaha. This will be my first bike so im looking for something that will give me the least amount of problems so i can worry about riding and not down time from my bike being in the shop.

They are both good bikes. I'm sure you'd be very happy with either one.

Neither of these is a super-serious sport bike, and that's good. The real sport bikes are very single-purpose and not for beginners. The Katana and Ninja are more general-purpose 'sporty' bikes that will be safer, more forgiving and more comfortable, maybe even more fun.

I tend to favor Honda myself but anything Japanese is pretty good.

I REALLY L0VED Y KAWASAKI NINJA 636!!! I W0ULD T0TALLY GET AN0THER 0NE. THE 0NLY PR0BLEM THAT I HAD WAS WHEN I HAD THE BIKE L0WERED THE L0WERING ARMS MADE A P0PPING N0ISE WHEN I P0PPED ANYKIND 0F A WHEELIE. IT WAS KINDA WEIRD BUT I S0LD IT SH0RTLY AFTER THAT S0 CANT TELL U WHAT 0THER KINDA PR0BLEMS IT AY HAVE HAD.

I would recommend the Yamaha FZ6, or the Suzuki SV650

well looking at the options you want a sports 600. The most reliable and a great bike to ride is the Honda CBR 600..The Suzuki GSXR 600 has a great engine but is let done by paint work...can be kept looking good with care but if you don't will quickly deteriorate. the kwack 636 again a good bike but not as good as the other 2.
you could try looking at the naked type bikes: fazer, hornet and bandit all good bikes and no fairing to smash cheaper insurance, engine not a highly stressed so more reliable and cheaper to run...not as fast but 130ish is by no means slow and they all handle fairly well...

CBR600RR any day and twice on Sunday.

All of the big 4 (Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha) are extremely reliable. I've owned several of all except Yamaha, and have never had any trouble from any of them. Depending on your age..I would check insurance on all of them before you buy....CBR, GSX-R, and ZX are all considered sport bikes and will have higher rates than the naked bikes... For instance When I got my bike, Suzuki Marauder 1600, in 2004 (I was 34 at the time) full coverage insurance was 250.00 For a Suzuki Hyabusa 1300, Full coverage was 3100.00, GSX-R 750 was 2800.00. So, I would check insurance and that may decide for you.

Good Luck.

All the Japaneses brands are very reliable. The ultimate answer is HONDA.

Honda's have a rep for being dependable but all the modern bikes of today are very reliable. Abuse and bad maintenance are the biggest causes of unreliability.
Try to find an Internet group or club of the bike your interested in to find out if there are any inherent problems of any kind.

buy a cbr600, it doesnt matter what you do to it, any cbr will just keep going, they are the duracell bunny of the bike world!!! trust me ive driven cbr's for years!!!

Regardless of the brand, don't always believe everything you hear. Some people can tear up an iron ball setting in a sand box.