Joel-
Congrats, and welcome!
I got my license about a year ago, and my first bike was a '75 BMW R60/6, with 14k miles. I really wanted a Royal Enfield, but I just couldn't swing the price at the time. Let's just say I got a good deal on the /6. It was nice, but by the time I got all of the little niggling issues sorted, primarily badly carboned heads and pistons which was robbing power and causing bad pinging, I had lined up my 2011 B5 purchase in a similar inventory-reduction deal. I sold the BMW (with a clean $1k profit!) and am loving the B5. The Beemer always felt like it was doing what I told it to do; the RE feels like it's doing what I
want it to do. For riding position and technique, I think it's a great first bike, and as you have heard here, the "old timers" seem to prefer it as well!
ps: I guess your bike will be a collector's item soon, as it seems as if the G5 is being discontinued. My first attempt at properly buying an RE was a shot at a used '09 G5, in green of course (my favorite), from a dealer. I looked at the pics of that bike on the dealer website for 2 months. When I finally called them, they had sold the bike the day before! Now the green B5 is available, (naturally
), but I still am happy with mine!