Chip provides the correct advice on crotch rockets, especially on the poor roads here in the DR. Young people are "invincible" and will do as they please. I call it genetic engineering.
I call them "organ donors".
And Chip is 100% correct...AND I might add he was the first person to suggest the Suzuki V-Strom 650 (aka Dl650) as the bike
MotoCaribe consider for our fleet. And he was 100% correct. Dual Sport bikes, a sportbike/offroad bike hybrid that are gaining huge market acceptance, are the perfect bike for the road and weather conditions in the DR.
A cruiser will get you beaten to death and you'll be bottoming that sucker out all the time. A sport bike will put you down due to the poor roads and potholes. A dirt bike is at home on dirt, but tires and gearing aren't meant for the paved roads.
Dual Sport bikes are taller, have greater and more forgiving suspension play, are geared and cammed for a lower usable powerband, have hybrid street/dirt tires, and have more straight-up ergos. They are NOT short in power, however. Our 650's have 66hp, and it's all there above 3500rpm's. They will go 220kmh, so cruising the autopista at 60-65 is a piece of cake.
I will forever appreciate Chip's suggestion of bikes. I wasn't aware much of that class of bikes, and when I first saw them I thought they looked kinda funny. But function over form prevailed, and I'm now a total convert to Dual Sprot riding, especially in the DR.