Well, first off, I've received a lot of great advice on parts, part no., etc., from members thus far. I am now having to put upgrades on hold because my OL has decided she wants to get a bike. She's never ridden before, and she's not picky at all.

I was thinking of starting her out on a Rebel 250, but would love to be able to start her out with her own Harley. Is there a Harley that one would suggest as a starter bike that she could carry over to longer tours with me, highway rides, etc.?

She's only 5'1", and my Fatboy Lo isn't quite right. It's a little heavy, and she barely touches both feet on the ground. She will take and pass an MSF course before riding.

 

My Wife is 5'. I started her out on a 250 Virago. You can get a used one relatively cheap, and they sit lower than the Rebel. Once she is comfortable riding, then you could move her up.

The Superlow is my wife's next bike, Right now I have her on a 94' Hugger that I had still needed to lower for her to sit comfortably.

Something about women and needing to be flat footed on a bike.

 

I would recommend the Honda Shadow 750. My GF rode one for three riding seasons until she was ready to move to a larger, heavier bike. She now rides a 2009 Deluxe.
The Honda Shadow sits with a low center of gravity, is lightweight but can still get up to interstate cruising speeds, and is a maintenance dream. You can pick up a late model year Shadow for under $4K and it holds its value relatively well. Those smaller 250cc bikes just wont cut it after the initial thrill is gone.

 

My wife is 5'6. She took the safety course an we bought her a used 500 Honda. Within two weeks she crashed. Not bad, fell at an intersection. She got back on and rode home. Smaller is always better when starting the wife out on a bike. You can buy and sell used Rebels with almost no money loss. Give her a month or two on one, THEN go bigger.

 

A used bike no more than 500cc's. Use it, abuse it, drop it, and sell it in a year and move up in cc's.

 

DO NOT START HER ON A 250!

as cheap and you can pick one up, there are two main reasons you don't want one

First, they have no power, so if you are out riding with her (and I know you will be) she is going to have to hammer it just to keep up with you in even normal driving conditions, and that is not going to be comfortable for her just starting out.

Second, as cheap as they are on the used market, you are going to get stuck selling it in 3 mos b/c she is going to outride it in 3 mos

My wife just started riding last year, she was very happy with the 250 in her MSF class and that was all she wanted, but I would not cave and insisted on a 650 at least. We found her a really nice Yamaha 650 vstar silverado - let me tell you how nice this bike is and how well it works for a woman.

it comes with saddle bags, windshield, floor boards.

I added crash bars and highway lights and the bike was done.

My wife is only 5'2 so we had the bike lowered 1.5 inches and it is absolutely prefect.

it has enough power that she could get used to the bike coming off the 250 from the class, but once she was used to it, it had enough power to get out of the turns and onto the straights and I didn't have to lay back or wait for her to get through the turn and worry a car was going to be up our ***.

After 1 year of riding she may be ready to move up, but honestly loves her bike so much she doesn't want to give it up.

We bought a used 2005 (last year in 2010) for $3800 that had less then 3000 miles on it and was in very very good condition.

Due both of you a favor and look at a 650/750 cc bike for her or you will be kicking yourself.

here's a pic of her's

 

thanks for all the advice, and I welcome more of it. Such a great community spirit here... thanks again everyone! I'll run it by her and see how she feels. Maybe let her go sit on a few bigger bikes.. more shopping is required lol.

 

why not try a riddley, their automatic and look cool....I believe their 40 CI

 

Start her out right with a CVO SE Ultra Classic including tourpak.....j/k I would get her a used Honda Shadow 750.

 

I agree that you should get her a Honda Shadow 750. BUT, They make about a hundred shadow models. You need to look for the Honda Shadow AERO 750. This model has forks & rear shocks that are 1 1/4" shorter than the other shadows in the line-up. This makes the seat height better than 1" lower than the others. When My wife started we looked at them all & she was able to flat-foot the Aero. and was really comfortable on it. We went on a 6000km (3700mile) highway run with it that year, then she moved up to a Shadow 1100 and has since gotten a Softail standard. The best part is that my confidence in her riding ability has gone up ten-fold thru this process.