Lots of good advice. Being a new rider and this sounding like your first bike, I'd make resale demand a large part of the decision. That statement comes from buying/ selling in the used markets for Powersports for over 20 years with my dealer license/ dealership. You'll love your first bike, but you'll also want to move on at some point too. Buy used 100%. Too old of a bike will be hard to sell. The wrong brand / model will also be hard to sell. Japanese cruisers don't sell well used at all. Indian Scouts can be bought pretty cheap used and even cheaper, FTR1200's. The Scout sells about as well as Japanese cruisers though..but at least has American heritage that may get you into a good group of like minded riders and a few calls when it's listed.
If you've got the budget and want a cruiser; consider going with an HD. They've got the most demand (used) for a cruiser and the largest network of rides/ events/ etc. that you can plug into pretty quickly. 2023+ Lowrider ST's (FXLRST) are great cruisers, but kinda pricey, even used. Still, plenty of demand when you want to sell and a really fun bike to ride. Endless customization with the HD product too...tons of aftermarket and riders to talk over their bikes with too.
If a sportbike; you can't go wrong with most of the major brands. Yamaha's R-line is good stuff with good (used) demand. An R1 is a great bike with top notch electronics suite. But, if you're worried about dropping your first bike, an R1 isn't cheap to fix. Even parking lot drops. It's also got an excess of capability that may hinder your learning. An R7 or Aprilia RS660 is a better choice IMO. Yamaha and Ducati have high brand demand on the used market. A Ducati V2 has a great electronics suite as well (close to the R1), but again; but used and consider this may be a bit too much bike that's more expensive than the R1 to fix. Sportbikes are good the weekend road rides and trackdays. Plenty commute on them, but the overall sport bike riding groups have shrunk a ton since the early 2000's. There's just not that many people to ride with anymore in that segment, if it's not at a trackday. Suzuki's GSXR-R750 is a fantastic bargain, but is missing an electronics package (safety) that would help you. I'd pass on that for now.
Upright (high bar) bikes are another option. Yamaha MT-09, MT-07 or something more vintage looking like Kawi's Z900RS and Ducati's Streetfighter V2 are great choices as well, IMO. V2's are oversold in the used market, but still well in-demand. The FTR1200 fits well here too, albeit, less used demand than the other bikes in this group. None the less, the FTR is another good choice on the used market (which is saturated with them). I'd stay away from anything outside the mainstream, which the RS660 might be slightly, but still a very good bike.
Having ridden most of these bikes. I'd suggest looking at something in the R7/ RS660 for moderate road riding and trackdays or an FXLRST for longer, traditional road rides and larger motorcycle riding community. Let us know what you choose!
is done, we don't know how old you are what other experience might make you a solid newb on an R1 or if you want to just be chill and cruise on the beautiful Bobber.
