How Difficult Is It To Ride A Gold Wing?

I almost forget what I'm riding.
I have ridden motorcycles off and on for 20 years. I had 3 previous bikes. I've not ridden much in the past 15 years or so, just too busy with raising 7 kids. Most are grown or about grown now, so I bought a 2006 Goldwing this summer. I still can't justify a new one that costs more than the cars I own, and honestly, I'm sad they shrunk them down. They tried to convert them from a luxury tourer into a sport tourer. If I wanted a sport tourer I'd go for a Yamaha FJ1300. At 140HP, it's a real sport tourer. At any rate, my main concern was that I'm only 5'8. I was worried about the seat height. After sitting on it, I found I can flat foot it if I'm standing up. Sitting down and back on seat I can only get balls of feet down. I had a friend ride it home from the previous owners house (about 3 hours away) because I drove the car there AND I was intimidated to get on it right away. It's 400lbs and 1200cc bigger than any bike I ever owned or rode! After just a couple of short rides, I began to feel comfortable after I was moving. Slow speed still scared me a bit. Mostly nervous about dropping while stopping. (The bike only had 24,000 miles and not a single mark on it!) I started to have a new problem, on the twisty roads, I wanted to start pushing it harder. I felt like I was on my sporty, zippy old 600cc naked Radian, which was only around 400+ pounds. Many times, I have to remember I'm on a VERY big bike that I don't want to wreck because it's the nicest bike by far I've ever owned. I have dragged a peg or two since, but maintain a healthy respect for this machine. I'm honest with myself and am a safe rider, with not desire to ride above my level. In the right hands, I can imagine this bike could be really impressive performance wise.