I agree, it is larger than I wanted to start on. The weight difference from the 125’s and 250’s I learned on is substantial. However, the throttle is really easy, so I don’t feel like the bike is just going to take off on me. That, and I haven’t felt cramped at all, so overall I’m really happy. After I had to rule out the 250’s I saw the Vulcan 500 review and looked for one of those, but they can’t sell them in California! The closest used one was 100 miles away in LA. So I looked at some other Vulcans and the custom was a nice fit at a really nice price. $5000 with only 2000 miles on it and no damage. I do wonder how that skinny tire is going to track in grooves, but I haven’t tried to find out.
So, I took my first ride to work today, and had one driver try to run me off the road. I was in the center lane on an overpass, and there was an off-ramp from the freeway merging into the right lane. A school bus was merging over, and it had a trail of cars behind it. The SUV immediately behind it and next to me swerved right over and into me in my lane. Probably suffering road rage from having to follow the slow school bus. I braked hard because there was a line of cars on my left and I didn’t think I could swerve over. I even tried hitting the horn, but I pressed the blinker instead, so my horn was late. The driver looked back and waved to me, then shot ahead in front of the school bus and immediately turned right! They couldn’t wait the extra few seconds behind the bus. Oh well. At the very next light, I was still thinking about it and stalled on my start (I never do that). The drivers around me probably thought I was a goner and soon. High drama on my first ride to work. I hope that doesn’t happen every day. Next time I’m going to move all the way over to the left lane before I hit that overpass.
I’ll get some pics, but I don’t have a working camera at the moment, and the ones I took with my cell phone aren’t coming out well enough to post up. I’d love to show it though. I really like that blue color.