Well, I've driven a Honda XR250L, Honda 750 Nighthawk, and the Kawasaki Ninja 500R. In that order :lol:
The XR250L was the best for doing my Road Test on. It's a dual sport bike, so it's great at low speed turns, you can almost just idle through the figure 8 cause the gearing in 1st is so low.
For figure 8's, I don't like the 500R, it's not too good. I've noticed when I tried to do a figure 8 on the same roads I used to practice on, it's way harder. Normally the grips hit the fairing/mirror. I've also noticed that the 500R hates low speed turns.
My opinion of the 500R, I love it!! I bought it because I knew sport bikes were more powerfull than most cruisers, so I figured it was cheap enough, and considered to be an entry level bike. I've made some dumb mistakes on it, almost went down a couple of times, but that is what bikes do when you get cocky. You get cocky, the bike straightens you out. One thing even an avid motorcyclist will tell you, either you've dumped a bike, or you will.
I'd suggest you do take the MSF class for the 300 beans. Not only will you not have to take the road test, but you'll get 10% off your insurance for your motorcycle, and they supply the 250cc motorcycles to use for their course. Plus, you get to learn more than most riders who haven't taken a course and have been riding for 20+ years.