Thanks for the advice everyone...........although I couldn't tell if morningAngel was giving me a medical questionnaire or screening me as a possible horizontal mambo partner.
I thought about starting smaller, but it really comes down to money. I don't want to have to buy something small, then keep buying progressively bigger bikes as my skill level increases. I have a friend who's first bike was a ZX-7 Ninja. He had the dealership deliver it to his apartment since he didn'y even know how to ride it home. Every day he would push the bike from his apartment to the closed-down K-Mart next door. He taught himself to ride in the parking lot of the K-Mart. He eventually worked up the courage to take it around the block on the street. Then maybe to the store...to get a haircut....to the bank. Now he's downsized to a GSX-R600, but races it at the track a few times a year. I'm not in that big of a hurry, so I'll probably start off just like he did. If it takes me six months in parking lots and in my quiet subdivision to become competent on major roads, then so be it.
I'll slide in some advice. Buy a POS that you won't mind getting scratched up. If you lay it down (and you will) it's better to be out a few hundred dollars than a few thousand. Brands don't matter.
My first bike was a 1981 Honda CB650. I bought it off of a guy for $300. There was more wrong with that POS than not. But, it got my knees in the breeze. I rode that thing until fixing it was costing me more than the bike was worth.
I was bikeless for a few years until I happened across my current ride, 1994 Harley Police special. I bought it in '02 for $8999 and it had 32k miles on it. It took me a while to get used to it (A ton more lower end torque than the Honda had). I laid her down a few times but she is running strong now.
Good to hear you are going to take a beginning riders course. You will never regret it. One thing I always assume when I am riding is that I am invisible. Never take for granted that the other guy sees you. More than likely he doesn't .
Lastly, always remember these words: It's not a matter of
IF you will lay your bike down. It's a matter of
WHEN.
And now a shameless pic of my bike: