Life Lessons with Joe: Window Shopping

I took the motorcycle safety course last week and passed. That means I now have a little card that I can take to the DMV to get the motorcycle endorsement added to my license and I am legal to ride on public roads. The question of whether I will be getting a bike is currently a point of contention in our household. It's very tempting to just go ahead and buy one before my wife gets back from her three week trip to Japan, but I figure that would be a bad idea. So I'll wait, but there's no harm in looking.

I have yet to go to a bike shop and actually try sitting on some different bikes, but I know that the Honda Nighthawk I rode in the safety class was a little small for me. Looking around online I find myself drawn to the looks of the standard/"naked" bikes. And I've been told several times that if I have any self-control to go ahead and get a bike in the 500-600 cc range because I'll get tired of a 250 cc very fast. So here's some of the bikes I'm interested in at the moment.