Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: Newbe bike, bike, motorcycle

Question
In "How to ride a Motorcycle" you recommend a 50 cc or less bike. However
your top beginners bike is the SV650 (clearly not 500cc). Honda has phased
out many 500 cc bikes. My favorite salesman is recommending the Honda
Shadow VT 750. clearly there are other factors besides cc's.My insurance
company however seems to charge by the cc (State Farm) I take the safety
course in Mid July and hopefully I will be ready to by a bike. I am 55, 5'8" and
if good shape for my age. I have never rode a motorcycle and I am a very
careful person. What do you think of the shadow 750 as a first bike and could
you clarify the other factors that go into the decision to buy a first bike. Why
is Honda dropping their 500 and 600 cc shadows?

Answer
Note that in my book I recommend no larger than a 500 for a 4-cyl engine, no larger than 650 for a 2-cyl engine. The SV650 is a twin.

Manufacturers don't produce many smaller bikes because people in this country are obsessed with the idea that bigger is better.

As a new rider, the question you should be asking is "what is the best bike for me?" New riders need to start on something small, manageable, and cheap and spend a couple years learning how to ride--focusing on themselves, on their own skills, and not focusing on what bike they ride.

In my opinion the 750 is too big of a starter bike. Maneuvering at slow speeds is going to be a real challenge. What's worse, bigger bikes can give riders a false sense of confidence, once up to speed. They'll make you feel like a better rider than you are. Then when something goes wrong, you learn the hard way that it's an awful lot of machine to manage.

Another reason I recommend bikes in the 500-650 cc range is that many that you'll find will be older, and not quite as powerful--perfect to learn on. Buy a starter bike and plan on riding it for a couple years, then go buy the bike of your dreams.

Pat