My first bike was actually a Honda elite if you can call that a bike. Then went to a Honda 250 interceptor and finally moved up to a ZX-6R. I would definitely go with the ZX-6R as the first bike although I dream of having a litre bike one day. The 250 is a good starter but youll quickly outgrow it. A 600 still needs to be bowed down to until you become a proficient rider. In my opinion and I think many others you will drop the bike at least once. I ended up almost totaling my 250 but luckily havent gone down with the 600. I think the 1000 is definitely too much power for a newbie. My 2 cents.