[penfold]

Ya, buy like an old used street bike thats got screwed up plastics (but where everything else is fine) and build a "naked bike" so you don't spend the money on new plastics. Plus it'll be cheap and like everyone else says, if you drop it, who cares, plus some of the naked bikes out there are pretty nice if you decide to keep it and fix it up nice. I had a '90 Katana I sold for $500 to a kid who is doing just this as his first bike. He spent like $250 to get it running and for $750, he's got his first street bike that if something happens to it, then no big deal. Like miraclegrau said, the last thing you want to do is spend all that cashish only to dump it right away....