Unlikely Option, But Option

I've seen pictures of this bike online before --  usually marketed as the Venom or Belmonte Sportster 250, but underneath it's the Chinese Dongfang DF250RTG -- and didn't like the way it looked in photos. But yesterday I happened to park next to one:

It looks a LOT nicer in person than in the ads. It's fairly inexpensive ($2k to $2.5k new, depending on where you find it, and I occasionally see them barely used and quite a bit cheaper on e.g. Facebook Marketplace).

Down sides:

• I've been planning for my next bike to be a 500-750cc engine. This is a 250cc.
• I prefer alloy wheels to spoked wheels.
• I'd probably want to replace the handlebars for less required forward leaning.

Up sides:

• Like I said, inexpensive.
• I've seen top speed, stock, listed as 65-70 in some places and 70-75 in others, neither of which is terrible, and with a performance exhaust, 28mm carb, and performance air I would expect it to manage 80+.
• It's got a plain round can headlight and analog gauges, which I prefer to the weird-shaped headlights and all-electronic stuff on most newer bikes.
• It's an air-cooled engine, which I prefer (one less fluid to leak), and some of the engines are made by Lifan (others are made by Zongshen, which I don't trust as much, but they are all clones of a very reliable Honda engine).

For the moment, I'm still planning on saving up for a reasonably priced, pre-2025 Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 (before they started doing all the digital crap). But this is one of the 250cc bikes I'm adding to my "that would work" list. I'd want to find it lightly used -- "bought this bike to see if I liked motorcycling, it took me 100 miles to decide I didn't" -- and at $1k or under.

I saw what looked like a REALLY good deal on a well-maintained/fixed-up 2006 Buell Blast today, and might have jumped on it, but I've learned since my last flirtation with that idea that parts range from "impossible to find" to "very expensive if you find them." From what I've seen, aftermarket parts for these cheap Chinese bikes are plentiful and inexpensive. They sell a LOT of them, just under various private label brand names, so it sometimes takes a little research to make sure you've got the right thing, but the stuff is out there (a lot of the engine parts, you can find listed as for that Honda engine mentioned above).