That would have been possible when I was young. My first street bike was a Honda Twinstar 185. It served me well for well over a year, but I'm afraid that was only possible because of the 55mph speed limit. That same motorcycle would be worthless outside of the inner city (vespa land) now.
Yeah. I am just trying to make the case for people staying on small and lame bikes until they have learned to drive safely and defensively (which could take a few years, imho).