Wife had the V-Star 650...sold it and got a Silverwing, she love the automatic.....and that puppy will run.....

 

HONDA VT 1100
HONDA VT 1300

They look nice & not to small and handle the freeway & hwys very well... Anything smaller you'll soon wish you went bigger!!!

Had a friend buy his wife a 450... 3 weeks later she was riding a 1100 and she thought the 450 was way to slow for her (ha ha ha).. And she's 5'3"...

 

I taught my daughter to ride on a Honda 250 Rebel.
Couldn't ask for a better beginner bike.
My daughter is also about 5'5" .
She had it a year and then we found a 2001 sportster 883 , she loves it.
I bought the Rebel with both intake valves bent from the previous owner , fixed it , ran a year , sold it for the original price.
My vote on the Honda Rebel 250.
Mick

 

check out a virago 535, small light bike that handles well. I think a xr50 is a honda, I had a xr75 honda when I was a kid...

 

Buell Blast! I bought one for $3000, liked it so much we bought my wife one for $2500 a few months later (we took the MSF together, and started learning together). We traded them both in about a year later for an 03 Lowrider, and they gave us $3000 for each bike (which basically evened out the taxes and such since they paid us more than they sold the second one to us for.....)

They were fun bikes to learn to ride on, very forgiving! Plus, spend about $300 for the V&H pipe and K&N air filter, and it was LOUD (and performed alot better!) My friends and I went to the Billet Bar (Scottsdale biker bar, fairly well known, lots of custom bikes there). People were making cracks about my bike as I was leaving (I had the V&H pipes on by then). You should've seen the jaws drop when I lit it up, it was as loud as some of the customs!

 

I would say a honda 250 rebel or a buell blast.
the honda will be cheaper and can probably find on used on ebay for cheap.
How about $1,200 buy it now price on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Honda...spagenameZWDVW

 

my vote is for the rebel. you can get it cheap, takes nothing special to maintain. it's light with plenty of power for a beginner. when she is ready to move up, it's easy to sell. if she doesn't like it- it's still easy to sell.

Obi

 

Did you try sticking a lower shock on the V-Star 650? I've known many folks who were tickled with those bikes. If not, I pretty much agree with everyone else, try the Rebel or the 535 Virago.

 

Back in 1988 (or so)I went out and bought a Honda rebel 250cc. It was my first brand new bike. It was a great little bike. I rode it for three or so years. I never changed the oil or anything. LOL It was a lot of fun. I was big, even back then. I am sure I looked very funny on it, but I thought I was cool. I had to sit on the passenger seat to shift gears, but that little thing was pretty fast. One day, I wrecked it. (moving van pulled in front of me and I slid under the truck. I was very lucky). When the police got there, the cop had recognized me from earlier in the day. I was heading to class at the university. I was moving along pretty well. He said he tried to catch me, to pull me over for speeding, but I was ripping through traffic, and going so fast, he thought it was safer for him to not try and catch me. LOL After the wreck, I picked up the bike. Only damage was a broken turn signal which I was able to jerry rig back into place. That bike never let me down. And like mentioned above, they are cheap. A great little bike for a beginner. IMO

 

While I was waiting for my Harley to get here from Canada (imported it), I picked up a Virago 250 for $2400, trained on it for 3 months, then sold it for $2400. RaftGyde wasn't real happy when I was looking at Rebels, but grudgingly agreed to the Yamaha only because it was a V twin. Later, he agreed it was a good move. Training on that light little bike built confidence really fast. I'm 5'4" and was pretty cramped on it, though. Here's a blurry pic--