650 v-twins are a good, manageable, upgrade from small parallels. And they're powerful enough to keep you satisfied for quite a while. Just depends on the platform you want to go to ( sport, cruiser, adventure ).
Yea my wife went with a vstar 250 for her first too, didn't have enough power get out of its own way. Think they are only rated for like 18 hp. She only rode it for half a season then she stepped up to a honda vlx shadow 600 for her second and rode it for s few year now she has a vstar 1100.I know a guy that's selling a 600 shadow right now too.
Ever worked in construction? 90% of decisions are made because of too much government oversight.The other 10% is due to the ridiculous rising costs of insurance which is why those signs get left up. It's not laziness, it's because Americans will sue over anything and this saves the construction companies ass