If you want to live, be happy, and learn to really ride, you’re going to want to get a reasonable first bike. If you want to look cool, make your buddies happy, or make up for less-than-satisfactory anatomy, well, that’s a different story…
Everybody’s given you good advice so far, but it seems like they need more reinforcement, so here I go.
I’m a guy who IS really into going fast, taking turns on the very edges of my tires, and trying to find the limit of my bike. I do it exclusively at the track, where things are controlled and as safe as possible, but I do it nonetheless. I tell you for two reasons:
1. I did not think I would be here when I first started riding. I was just getting a motorcycle to have some fun riding around on 25-50mph twisties. You do not know now what you will want later, and you cannot underestimate, as eon was saying, the impact that others’ influence and your own fantasies will have on you.
2. As somebody who really loves a super high-performance bike, you might be surprised to know that I don’t ride my GSX-R on the street. I ride a Ninja 250R and a Suzuki DR-Z400sm around town almost exclusively. Why? Because they’re more comfortable to ride, and far more fun at street-legal speeds.
My point? Your dad is involved in drag racing. He’s so far removed from being a beginning motorcyclist that his advice is just about useless for you. If you have the skills to control a car on the way to an 8 second quarter mile, you’ve forgotten how hard it is to brake and accelerate smoothly when you first start driving. Do NOT get wrapped up in the macho advice of your peers. Don’t get wrapped up in your own ego or your desire to meet a certain image. Think honestly about what you want, what you SHOULD get, and make the right choice. If you want a Ninja 250, get a freakin’ Ninja 250. If you want a bit more pep, but still want a reasonable beginner bike, you have options there as well.