I went to two Yamaha dealerships today, and the only one I felt remotely comfortable on was the Yamaha FZ6, which is a sport/touring hybrid. I gather it's a tuned down version of the sportier bike that I can't think of off hand.
I'm a tall guy (6' 2" or so) and have very long arms. Aside from the exception mentioned above, I was most comfortable sitting on the passenger seat on all of the other sport bikes I tried. If they had flat seats, they'd be ideal, but the raised hump for the passenger makes them awkward to realistically ride for distance.
I talked with some of the guys on the floor and gather that a sport bike (Ninja, etc.) is a comfortable ride for not much more than an hour, maybe two. Given that I love going for drives in my car for hours, this kind of turned me off the sports bike class. A hybrid might be ideal, but I have long arms, and comfort is my primary concern. That being said, I would like a bike where I am primarily over the handlebars and not "cruisin'". I sat on a used Ninja and my dad said I looked ridiculous, as my arms are just too long to feasibly ride such a bike comfortably.
I've also decided I am going to start on a 500cc or higher bike. 250's are small and given that I had trouble finding a 500+ that fit, I'm not even really considering smaller bikes at this point. I also feel that I'd prefer owning a bike longer and one I won't outgrow sooner. I realize the extra power could be dangerous, but I'm a disciplined guy and don't drive my car excessively fast, despite it being able to accomplish higher speeds. Dad actually supports this decision, which admittedly surprised me a bit at first.
So far, I've only visited Yamaha dealers, but intend to check out Honda and Suzuki dealerships in the upcoming weeks. I have an alternate spot in a training class in a few weeks, and if that doesn't pan out, I'll likely take a guaranteed spot in May or June.
As I research and sit on bikes, I'm definitely getting progressively more psyched about riding... It also seems I am seeing a lot more bikes on the road of late, but I guess that's partly a credit to the beautiful weather and changing seasons.
Bikes I am excited to check out include the Suzuki SV-650 and Bandit 600. The Katana seems like a nice bike also, but I suspect both it and the SV-650 will be too small. I'm not really familiar with Honda's offerings, but I've been impressed by their reliability in car form, and ideally they have some bikes I can add to my list of potential rides.
Ideally it's alright if post my experiences/comments in this thread. I'm in about the same situation in that I'm starting out, and given that the information is likely to be related to some extent, I figure my posts might fit just as well in this thread, instead of creating a new one.
Lastly, I found a pretty informative guide about beginning motorcycle riding, which includes bike recommendations, pricing, sizing, insurance, and worthwhile safety modifications. It can be viewed at Epinions (
http://www.epinions.com/auto-review-...3A46624A-prod3).