Thanks for all the great tips, everyone. I actually have already taken the safety course and got my rider's license, but it was about 10 years ago, back in Maryland, and I never ended up buying a bike. So I would almost certainly want to take it again here in Washington to get a little practice before heading out into my first morning commute in Seattle area traffic. I have spent quite some time riding mopeds around Thailand if that counts for anything...

I didn't realize the Buell Blast was so small - on the web site of course they all pretty much look the same size. That Spyder is bad*ss, but I guess it's more of a "trike" than a "bike". I'm definitely more partial to two wheels, and I'm thinking a cruiser between say 500 and 800 cc is probably about right for my purposes.