Depending on your frame, I'd say one of the following would be a good choice due to availability, price, and parts availability:
Ninja 250R (A Hayabusa rider rode one for 700 miles [ ride report:
http://www.pashnit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1145 ] and he fell in love with the flippin' thing - every time I read the article I kinda get an itch for one)
KLR 250
KLX250S/KLX250SF
Hyosung GT250
Hyosung GT250R
Hyosung GV250
Yamaha WR250
Rebel 250
Eliminator 125
Yamaha TW200
Suzuki GZ250
Suzuki TU250
Honda CBR250
And so forth. I'd also strongly suggest buying used. If this will be your first bike, you've got to realize that it will get dinged up, scraped up, and scratched up during normal use, and there's a good chance that at some point it will find itself on its side, one way or another. Even riders with a great deal of time and experience still end up dropping their motorcycles, and only a very few riders ever go without
some kind of accident.
And, ultimately, if you get too much power too soon, it may not turn out so well:
http://www.kawasakimotorcycle.org/forum/what-i-learned-today/83157-wear-your-gear.html
Now, mind you, that was my fault, a lack of experience on my part at the time. I had less than a year's worth of riding experience and busted up a then-brand new Kawasaki Versys (I saw the thing when it was still in the crate, before I bought it!). I thought I had the experience - no, I
knew I had the experience to ride it right. The first 928 miles I rode it were from the dealership I bought it at, in New Jersey, to where I was living in Alabama. I had put over 4,000 miles on the thing in the 3 months I rode it before the crash, I had logged a couple of 200-mile (round-trip) road trips and made several trips with a passenger, so
of course I had the experience I needed to avoid an accident.
Wrong.
You can tell by the pictures that my complacency and overconfidence not only got myself busted up; I had the unfortunate outcome of causing someone else injury. The
only positive thing about it all is that both my passenger and I were wearing full gear, which saved us from everything except her bruised knee and my broken arm.
All that said, unless you're a deity of the throttle, I would
seriously consider buying something in the 250cc range as a good first motorcycle. They're usually fairly cheap; they're lightweight, which makes them manageable and, therefore, confidence building; they're economical, returning fuel economy anywhere from 62 mpg (which is what I saw on the KLR 250) to 85+ mpg (which most Honda Rebel owners report). If you want to run on the slab, the Ninja 250 is supposed to run 80+ mph no sweat, same goes for the CBR250.
If you have other questions, this article might help:
http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/BBS/viewtopic.php?t=11866
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