also regardless of reliability and the like, as Elwood mentioned, his sportster is almost 900cc’s and is often considered a “girls bike” and is their smallest cc bike on the floor. that right there is as good of a reason to get a japanese bike as your first bike as any. time and time again it’s reccomended starting small and working up, cruisers are more newbie friendly in terms of power, but less so in terms of pure weight, so while the power of the 883cc cruiser engine isn’t near the power of the same cc in a sportbike engine, the weight is also considerably heavier, and at slow speeds where you’re most likely to dump your bike as a newbie, thats going to come into play a LOT. a 250cc is going to be a lot lighter, and more nimble at slow newbie practice speeds than any harley. and the only 250cc cruisers out there are all japanese. same with the 500cc, 650cc… for your first bike, choose the bike you feel safest on. the bike you honestly feel you’ll be able to handle and ride comfortably, not the bike you wish you could handle.