That you want a helicopter.
And I’ll end up flying in a paraglider. No, we need to think of something else.
There is a lot that can be done to reduce the risks of motorcycling. Getting training/practice, wearing good gear, not riding drunk, not being under 25 years old, and choosing when/where to ride are all things that can vastly improve your odds of walking through the door intact at the end of the day. OP sounds like they’re off to a good start on many of these points.
I’ll repeat my new-rider advice from eight years ago, with emphasis on a couple of points:
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Wear earplugs. I recommend these ones, just about the best NRR you can get. You’ll be surprised just how much better you feel at the end of a long ride - and in a couple of decades, how well you can still hear.
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Get more advanced training. the MSF beginner class is a good start, but it’s pretty basic. Attend a track school, where you can learn more about what your bike (and you) are capable of - not so you can go racing on public roads, but so you are better equipped to deal with the inevitable hazards that present themselves.
It’s often said that motorcyclists are the only people who understand why dogs stick their heads out of car windows. Welcome to the club. 
Do earplugs not reduce your hazard perception capabilities? As a cyclist, I find it very useful to be able to hear when vehicles are approaching from behind. Though I suppose that’s much less likely to be a problem on a motorcycle. And perhaps the engine/wind noise is overwhelming anyway? I could still envisage hearing (for example) another biker coming up to overtake before I see them in the mirror though, unless you’re checking mirrors constantly.
No more than closed windows do when you’re driving a car. Even without earplugs, when you’re riding a motorcycle the only vehicles you’re going to hear (before seeing them in your mirrors) are the ones with sirens or exceptionally loud exhaust noise.
Geez, my heart stopped when I read this! And I kept frantically reading, thinking “Well, he’ll explain…” Nope, at no point in the entire post is it not a human baby… so tell me it wasn’t. Maybe I’ll have time to go back and reread the entire thread. til then, my heart’s racing…
Missed the edit: Ok, went back and read everything, and “a motorcycle” was in his first post, but it had been over a day ago that I’d first seen that, and when the thread was auto-updated I just saw the new post…
Well, don’t need caffeine this morning, my heart’s pounding.
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ve been looking around at earplugs, mostly unsure what I should be looking for. My first actual ride outside of town yesterday definitely showed me that I’ll be needing those, and quickly. It’s LOUD out there.
I do have a couple more classes scheduled - the BRC2 and ARC are already on the docket in the coming weeks, now that I actually have my own ride. If I can fit in bike bonding before the cold sets in, I might try it, but I know I’m coming up on the end of the decent riding season here in Colorado fairly quickly. I’ve looked a bit at track days nearby, and I’ll probably be looking at some sort of class eventually (probably next spring). I’m definitely overly cautious in my twisties - even as much as I’ve heard (and repeated when it worked) “trust the bike doesn’t want to fall over”, it’s hard letting go of that feeling when you start to really lean in.
It wasn’t a human baby. Or the doggo-baby. Or even the resident cat-baby. Just the two-wheel version of a pretty-baby. She’ll get prettier when the new fairings have arrived and been painted.
Human babies get dropped every day around this big ol’ world of ours. Relax. It’s not a good thing, but neither is it necessarily a crisis.
I concur with the others that you did totally the right thing. Motorcycles are a lot of fun, and if you’re just starting out, a small-ish one like you have is a good way to gain experience and the necessary safety sense.
My first bike was a 300-something cc Honda, and then later I graduated to a CX-500 which I absolutely loved. It wasn’t particularly big or heavy, but its water-cooled V-twin and shaft drive had a top speed of about 106 mph which was plenty of power for me.
At the time I lived in a medium-size town surrounded by lots of scenic country roads. I eventually had to reluctantly part with it when I moved to a big city with lots of huge freeways and a serious job that took up lots of time and lots of travel; in short, when I became a grown-up. But I’d love to go back to the carefree days of zooming up and down country roads in the evening, just like flying, feeling the distinct change in temperature from the cool air pooling down in the valleys and the warmth at the top of a hill.
For years I listened to my mom telling me I was going to kill myself when I’d say I wanted to get a motorcycle. Then after getting married, it changed from my mom to my wife telling me I was going to kill myself. Finally at age 45 I said “Screw it, I’m doing this.” I took the MSF class then shortly afterwards bought a Yamaha V-Star 250. I rode it for a couple of years until I felt really comfortable out on the road, then traded up for a Kawasaki Vulcan 900 that I’ve had for the last 10 years.
I ride my motorcycle with the same mindset that I ride a bicycle - assume nobody sees you, and everyone is out to kill you. I’ve never been in an accident, and only dropped it once - in my own driveway, while my wife was trying to dismount and caught her foot and I couldn’t keep the bike from going over. (It was such a slow motion fall that neither one of us was hurt, and neither was the bike.)
I forget where I first saw it, but I’ve always enjoyed the adage: “Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul.”
Man! This thread…I almost bought another bike a couple years ago, paid the divorce attorney instead, so still within the scope of possibilities, maybe next year. Lawdy lawdy selling my bike when I joined the army is one of the few true regrets I have in life.
I had a Honda Nighthawk 550 superchicken. I can verify that it topped out at 110 very thrilling, very scary miles per hour with a 140 pound rider on it. (I had the '83 cruiser model, not the '83 and a half café racer model) sigh, not water cooled, but I did have an oil cooler for the motor oil, and yep, shaft drive.