Moozh

I think I'd throw into the mix that motorcycle maintenance costs are a piece of the puzzle that should not be overlooked. Getting the "wrong" kind of bike could be an eye opener to you when you have to get her serviced, in this aspect I would def stay away from sport/sporty bikes, they can bleed you with a service every 6k miles or so with valve check/adjustments every 12k miles. It honestly costs me more to "feed" my sportbikes than it does my full sized sedan. Tires and the cost to get them put on can also be high.

I have not had experience with the more sensible bikes but bikes I have had some time with that were pleasant pleasures are Triumph Bonneville, Suzuki Katana (I've ridden the 750..great "everything" bike), Honda rebel (little "street cred" as it has a small engine but extremely reliable, easy on the pocket, gas sipper, fun), as mentioned Suzuki SV650 are great bikes but still sport in nature thus keep in mind the maintenance aspect of ownership if you intend on riding a fair number of miles a year. The beginner sportbike mainstay and cheap to own, cheap to run, 80mpg king (older carburetted ones..current ones are FI and about 60mpg) is the Kawasaki ninja 250..buy one, own it forever if you want to sell it you may likely get almost what you paid for it.

All the smaller engined bikes may not have the outright grunt of a big engined bike but they make good controllable power, they are reliable workhorses, generally cheap to insure bikes, simple and pocket friendly to maintain and truly a pleasure to own and ride. With your budget, if you are looking for a sport-type bike the Kawi ninja 250 would def be on my radar, for a cruiser style the honda rebel, my buddy bought a 96 katana 750 that was in perfect shape used for about $1700 back in 2005, I thought it was a great all rounder bike.

Which ever bike you favor give your dealer a local call and inquire about the maintenance schedule (you can do the oil changes and other general maintenance tasks yourself easily enough) and what they currently estimate them to cost just so you are informed about the larger picture, also inquire about how much a tire is and how much to mount it. Not such a big deal on the entry level/smaller displacement bikes as I hear stories of guys barely taking care of their bikes yet riding the snot out of them for years without trouble but I know you wont get away with that with a modern repli-racer or large displacement cruiser. For example my rear tires on my repliracer is about $260 (Pirelli Diablo SuperCorsa race tire). feeding sportbikes can get crazy but in contrast the rear tire for a honda rebel might be about $60 and last 3 times as long.

Just be as informed as you can prior to getting your first mo'sickle....again I think the Honda Rebel (std/cruiser) or kawi Ninja 250 (sport-y) are the best choices for reliable, hardworking, cheap to own and operate rigs that in the used market will fit your budget. Yet again you may be surprised with what some people are willing to sell their mid-life-crisis-wife-hates-it-I-almost-killed-myself-gotta-get-rid-of-it-bike for..