My wife decided that she might like riding her own bike and has gotten lots of encouragement from her co-workers (3 elementary school teachers-1 Harley Softail Classic and 2 Honda Rebels). I told her that she should take the MSF course and if she still wanted to then we would get her a bike to learn on. Well she passed (after dumping the eliminator on the first day). Her instructor said that she really improved and was a lot smoother the second day. She only dropped 8 points on the riding test. So, we went looking and hit all of the dealerships (even H-D) except Triumph. My speedy is a bit too tall for her (she's only 5'3") and didn't feel right with the drag bars so I didn't force the issue. At the end of the day I asked her which one felt the best. She didn't want to look at me. I though "this isn't good". She said "I don't want to say because it was the most expensive one and you don't like them". I told her out with it. Her choice was the XL883L. I said that the important thing is that she has a bike that fits and she is comfortable on. I also suggested that she start on something smaller to see if she really wants to ride (streets are a bit different than the MSF course parking lot). So long story short (I know, too late
) I found a 2001 Yamaha 250 Virago that she liked. (She had sat on a new one and was her second choice). She thought that she would get one of her friends rebels but they wanted $3000 for one and $3300 for the other. Her Virago was $1600 with 3800 miles. We spent 2 hours in a new mall (nothing open yet) parking lot last Sunday and she is getting smoother. A few more times and she will be ready for some low traffic surface streets.
I just hope I'm ready for this. Dan
