Got every single book, including the Soft Science of Road Racing.
Abo Bob, Comparing a bigger bike to a CB250 at least just isn't fair. Unless you're talking about fuel economy, the parallel twin that's in the CB250 is quite uninspiring. The CBR250RR however is quite a nippy little bike, I own one and love the thing to bits, but like said, a ZXR250 will be the superior bike if you do end up deciding you want a sports bike (unlikely I know you want a cruiser) but the ZXR will be rarer and more exxy.
If you want a torquey loungechair of a bike but just want to get a 250cc for rego cheapness and cruising economy, I suggest a ZZR250, 03 or above... Insanely comfortable bikes, but while its comfortable, now I've gotten so used to the CBR I sat on one of those and just thought "no, no no! this is all wrong!" heheh
Also, what leads you to believe harleys are unreliable?
Lastly on the topic of bigger bore bikes, am I the only one here that is a fan of the Buell XB9R / XB12R ?