My hat off to all the ladies who learned how to ride and those that still ride the sportster line of HD bikes. I have never ridden one. I could not get over the feel on the sales floor. I opted for a non HD bike to learn on - I bought a Suzuki 800 Intruder. I aspired to get a low rider one day, but we started to do a lot of travel on the bikes, and I learned quickly that I wanted a bike with more width to load stuff wider, instead of going higher. I did not have the cash to get a heritage when I traded my 800 on a 1500 Intruder. From that it was a easier move to the Road King and now I am on the Electra Glide. I would like to try to ride a sporty some day, because now that I have the basics of riding down, I'd like to figure out what it was that threw me off so much when I was first starting out.