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Can’t decide between cruiser or sport bike.

I have a friend who has a friend who bought a new Harley and crashed it first thing in the Harley parking lot. Then, while picking the bike up, he got his finger stuck in the front rotor and had the tip of his finger neatly removed when he lifted the front of the bike.
 
SV650 all the way! I started with an SV 8 years ago and I still have that bike. I've taken her canyon chasing, track racing at thunder, and even offroading to Usal beach. I did also use the same tires (michlin road 5s). Riding has a pretty high skill ceiling and current bikes have a ton of capability to keep up. With a reliable and comfortable bike there is more than enough room to grow as rider in any discipline.

The thing about specialized bikes like sport bikes is the ergos are really helpful for breaking the skill ceiling of standard bikes for maybe the top 10%. For the rest of us blokes a SV650 is very competitive.

Start with a standard and as your riding progresses, don't feel shy about putting her to work in some of the other aspects like dirt or track. I did add an R1 to my stable last year and I love her very much especially on track, but I still come back to the SV650 for commuting and local riding.
 
I love a sport bike with a comfy upright riding position, personally. I used to have a Kawasaki Z650 and miss that bike terribly! Of course, as a very biased moto-camper, I also wonder if you'd think about an adventure bike. In my opinion, it's like something in between what you're considering.
 
elevader said:
I am a new rider and the two bikes I am absolutely fascinated by are the Yamaha R1 and the Indian scout. Now I understand that those two are not even close to be called beginner bikes. So to start out, I’m thinking about Ninja 500 or Rebel 500. Ninja for the sport bike starter and rebel for the cruiser starter. But I don’t have budget to buy both. I can obviously try test riding both but I don’t think that will paint the complete picture. One more thing I have thought is to try renting them both on ridershare but with the fees and insurance it’s getting way too expensive.

Any thoughts?
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my first bike was a 650 ninja. Highly recommend. Plenty of oof to keep you going for awhile
 
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