I agree with pretty much everything said so far. I personally think the R6 is a badass bike to learn on though and from the sound of it the katana may be too small for you and I'd hate to see you buy something and be bored right away. I already feel like the r6 is slow for a bike but then I remember I'ts a good bike to rack up some experience on the turns, cause you wouldnt wanna make a mistake in a turn on an expensive top of the line bike. So the r6 is basically in between the small bikes and the really quick ones. Check out www.r6messagenet.com... I always see good deals on there.. There was even someone selling an 03 on here not too long ago that was mint for $5k... Probably gone by now though.