Hi. I've grown up on the back of bikes, from the time I was old enough to walk I was on the back of a bike. I'd been thinking about ridding myself for years and last year I decided I was going to. I took the safety course offered by the state, and went and bought a Honda Rebel 250 cc. I did not want that bike as my first one I felt like it was too small even though I'm not very tall. I stand 5 foot 4 and that bike feels tiny to me. I rode all of September October November some of December and got my bike out in March. When I first got the bike I spent hours and hours in a big parking lot just working on maneuverability handling stopping that kind of thing. When I decided that I was ready to take it out I stuck to be back country roads to learn the feel of the bike in the wind practice passing cars stopping. When I get comfortable with that I took it on main roads where I would encounter faster cars semisand it just fine. I am relatively comfortable as far as my skill level on my Rebel. I've practiced my emergency stop so many times when I actually had to do an emergency stop so I wouldn't hit a stupid driver it just came second nature. I got it in my head that I wanted a bigger bike so I went bike shopping. I went to a dealership that sells foreign and domestic motorcycle. I sat on hundreds of bikes of all sizes and cc's and finally found one that fit me and that I liked. It ended up being a Honda VTX 1300 R I wanted to take it out and test ride it an even the sales guy was concerned but I was stubborn and said I wanted to try it I wanted to see if I could handle a bigger bike. I took it out on a really windy day and absolutely loved it. Although it so much heavier than my little tiny rebel it wasn't overwhelming and as far as the bigger engine size realistically if you're not up on your throttle it really doesn't matter. I'm almost 40 I'm a woman I have nothing to prove to anybody I just like to ride and so my question after writing this book is is going from a 250 a 1300 too big of a leap?? I was confident when I left the dealership that I was going to research the bike come back the next day and buy it but after reading website after website I'm starting to doubt myself. All of these websites I read talk about how you should move up slowly that you have to hone your skills. And I understand that but am I supposed to buy a 250 and then move up to a 500 and then move up to 750 and then was up to a 950 and then keep going and going?