The perfect beginer's bike!!!
You might want to consider buying an old used bike. I learned to ride on an early 80's Kawy CSR 306. It's light weight, short, and has about 20 hp at the rear wheel. Riding on this bike was exactly like riding a bicycle. This bike was very forgiving, hard to stall, easy to stop, and pulls very small wheelies when you pop the clutch(you will most likely do this when you are learning). I bought this bike for $500 dollars, put about 3,000 miles on it and then sold it for $800 (this bike did not run when I first got it). I figured if I recked this bike or did'nt enjoy riding, no great loss. From that bike I rode my fathers 920 Y Virago. It is tall, heavy, v-twin cruiser with terrible suspension and massive amounts of torque. I rode the bike with no problems but I personally dislike big heavy cruisers. The ninja 250 is also a great beginers bike that looks good. I think the 500R is out of your league right now. Just remember that most bikes under 500cc are really sketchy at highspeeds and are hard to control on freeways and underpowered for mountain riding. Well good luck, and I hope you wear the max protective gear, I work in a hospital and motorcycle trauma's are the worst, so be safe!!!!
Later