Did the MSF last weekend and starting to look at bikes. Yeah the old Yamaha CV80 isn't going to cut it very long. Loved the 250cc Yamaha vmax in class, gotta say I might of started having too much fun in the obstacles. I've somewhat narrowed it down to the Yamaha Vmax 650 and Honda Rebel 750. I know the 650's I've looked at are shaft drives but some of the 750's are chain. Although some 750's might be shaft drive I can't tell. I've found a couple yellow Rebel's I like but those appear to be chain's,
Is drive type something I should worry about for a beginner bike? Don't really want to mess with a chain, but then again I have plenty of chain pedal driven bikes.
Figured those bikes would be good starter, good for a couple hours and small jaunts for the wife and I (eventually.. need to more seat time for that). In 8 years it'll be a Goldwing.
All good points made here, and while the effect of the final drive on the feel of the bike really is personal preference, another factor is your budget for maintenance, and how much maintenance you want to do yourself.
A chain secondary does require occasional lubrication and adjustment; if your sprockets are in good shape and you use a premium quality O-ring or X-ring chain, it's not a frequent adjustment and it is easy to do. It is comparatively inexpensive and easy to change chain and sprockets as part of a scheduled maintenance program, and if the chain goes bad on the road they are widely available and very easy to replace if necessary.
On the shaft drives, if you're just changing final drive oil this is not a big deal, but if (like BMWs) the bike requires regular drive spline lubrication and it needs to be disassembled to accomplish this, that might be worth thinking about. It can get expensive quick. Worth checking on before buying.
The concern about shaft jacking varies with the bike. Some were terrible, some are almost unnoticeable.
The advantage to shaft drive is reliability, and while it might be a little high-maintenance in the shop two or three times a year, it's no-maintenance on the road, which can be quite a benefit on long trips.
Belt drive is quiet, clean, and the maintenance is typically much less frequent than chain drive and somewhat more frequent than shaft drive. As was pointed out here already, sometimes the swingarm has to come off to change the belt, and this can be very expensive.
What has not been mentioned, and is a serious consideration depending upon where you are in the country and what kinds of roads you ride on, is if a pebble gets in between the belt and the pulley this can become even more expensive. Sometimes it's no big deal, the pebble gets pushed through the center of the belt and you just keep riding. And sometimes it happens at the edge of the belt and you need a belt replacement. Which can be a problem depending upon where and when it happens.
And sometimes the pebble doesn't go all the way through the belt, it just keeps going around embedded in the belt destroying the pulley teeth. Now in addition to the disassembly to get to the belt you are also buying a set of pulleys. If there is a belt drive bike you like it would be worth talking with a mechanic familiar with that particular model about what's involved.
While final drive is an important factor worth considering carefully according to your circumstances, it's just one of many. If you like everything else about the bike, then the final drive might not be a deciding factor.
