Originally Posted by: PonyOnewhat is it then? the way it rides and how easy it is?

i figure the engine size isn't all of it... i just don't like the thought of accidentally letting loose on a bike that has 150hp when i should be stopping...

So, sign up for some lessons. You can usually get a big enough reduction on your insurance premiums to cover the cost. Here in Canada you can get lessons from the Canada Safety Council, where you get to learn on bikes that are donated by dealerships on closed courses away from traffic. Riding skills are very different from driving skills, and the co-ordination requirements are much higher. The last thing you want to do is start out on a new, expensive bike that you're going to be afraid of dropping. And you can't possibly know what you really want in a bike until you've spent some time riding a few. This is like picking out your first guitar in that respect. Ducati makes some wonderful bikes, but that doesn't mean you're going to want to spend a lot of time sitting on one. They may be totally unsuited to the kind of riding you find yourself doing. Buzzing around a major population centre like LA calls for a very different set of design parameters than doing deep knee bends on canyon roads. And frankly, you aren't in a position yet to assess either set of conditions. Your car-driving experience and skills only contribute some of the road-savvy you will need while riding a bike. Things like road surface conditions and even wind gusts suddenly take on an importance that a car driver can't comprehend.

So, park your lust for a Duck. They are possibly the worst choice you could make for city riding. And there's a lot of city between Venice and anything remotely resembling the kind of roads they were designed for. Sign up for some lessons. And get some old non-pretty bike that is mechanically sound, but is not going to cause you to cringe every time it gets a bug splatter on it. Trust me on this. You'll understand what I'm talking about after you've got a year or so of riding behind you.