New bike

A month after successfully passing my test, I finally bought a bike. I had a lot of issues with finding the right bike. It got to the point where it was changing everyday to try and find something that suited my needs. In the end, I settled with a halfway point that would give me a years worth of experience with riding  a bike that had a fair bit of power, didn't need to be restricted, was lightweight and looked pretty impressive. I had my doubts, but the bike was always in my peripheral since I started looking. These are the bikes I looked at with my reasoning for disqualifying all of them:

Budget: £1300

ZXR400 - Too old, bound to have a series of issues for my budget, high insurance, too small. Needs restricting.

ER5 - Heavy, poor build quality, lazy. Needs restricting.

SV650 - Too expensive (next bike!). Needs restricting.

VTR250 - Not available in the UK and needed to be restricted.

Ninja 250 - Too expensive.

CB500 - Doesn't look that great, expensive, old, needs restricting.

In the end I went for a CBF250 2005 13000miles. For the money I paid, it was an absolute steal. It has 5 owners including me. Is in immaculate condition, had a service a few months ago and has a full years MOT and TAX. I paid £1320. Insurance was expensive at £550 but thats mainly due to it being kept at two addresses. It has amazing fuel economy and knocks on 270 miles from a £22 fill. Power band through 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears is surprisingly good and beats most production cars. It looks pretty neat and is a lot bigger when you see it yourself. I'm 6ft 3" in my boots and I fit on it really comfortably, nothing like the ZXR400. I've already done 1500 miles and am about to replace the entire clutch, due to it not going into neutral whilst the engine is running. I did my tests in about 2 months, without any 125 experience. It has twice as much power as the 125s you learn on, sounds genuinely beastly and doesn't look teeny.