I bought an old bike for myself as a starter bike. It is an ’81 Honda CM400E. It only had about 18,000 on it when I bought it which is good in that it’s low mileage but bad because it also means the bike spent a lot of time sitting around which isn’t good. I got lucky because the guy I purchased it from bought it to teach his son how to ride. He spent a lot of time making sure it was in good shape for his son. So everything that typically needs replaced on older bikes was already done. New tires, battery, brakes, air filter, oil filter, plugs and wires and the carbs were rebuilt. So the bike is in great running condition. I put about 1,000 miles on it before winter hit and had no problems whatsoever. I’m also fairly handy with a wrench and this bike is pretty simple so I pretty confident that I can fix any problems that do arise.
I wouldn’t be afraid of buying an older bike, but be prepared to do some work on it and spend a good bit of money if it has not been well maintained.
As for the CX500 for a starter bike. When I took the MSF course, one of the other guys had bought an ’81 CX500 as his first bike. He got one in pretty good shape for less than $500 bucks. I checked out myself (didn’t ride it though) and they are a pretty big bike. Fairly tall and kinda of heavy. If you have never been on a bike before or are a small person it might not be the best bike to start out on. I don’t think they have enough power to get you in too much trouble but learning the slow speed maneuvering and stuff on a bike that size could be difficult. I’m sure you can learn on it but there are definitely easier bikes out there (my CM400 for example
I do think that the old CX’s are really nice rides. There just something I really like about the older Hondas. Their older bikes just have a certain “charm” to them that IMO is missing from there current line up.
good luck with you purchase and don’t forget to take the MSF.
here’s a pic of my old Honda the day I brought it home.