$22grand for a motorcycle that weighs almost as much as a civic and gets less MPG’s than one… they’re great for eating the highway, but if you’re doing a quick commute to and from work they’re not going to help you out much. maybe on the weekend trips it’ll be better, once you finally learn to control that beast of a bike. liter sports bikes are like a rocket strapped to unicycle wheels, goldwings are like elephants and all you’ve got is a little stick to direct them with. I’ve seen those expert elephant handlers turn one of them on a dime just swishing around their ears…but it takes a LONG time to develop that skill. I’ve seen people on goldwings turn on a di…er…quar…er…maybe a buck fifty….once they’ve had it for a long time. but most of those’ve been riding forever and worked their way up from other bikes.
elwood started on a sportster 883, and if I recall he’s over 6′ and he had a fair amount of trouble with that. won’t say it CAN’T be done, but the chances of either getting spooked and quitting riding altogether or it being a much longer, slower, and more painful and unenjoyable learning curve is certainly much higher on such a large bike as your first bike.
if you get a 650, you’ll have plenty of money left over for some nice hard cases, a windshield, and heck you could even have a custom made aftermarket seat hand made, and still come out cheaper than a goldwing.