Honda vs Yamaha vs Kawasaki vs Suzuki vs Ducati, BMW, etc etc etc?

I'm a total bike noob, but I'm in the market for a nice used sports bike. I have friends who own the Yamaha R1 and Kawasaki Ninja and I think those bikes are pretty sweet.
Any idea which ones are best in terms of reliability, parts, power, speed, stylings, resale value, etc?

Start small, learn how to ride.

My friends who race 1000 bikes, don't even ride liter bikes on the street.

You can go buy a 180hp bike that will do 180+mph, but if you don't know how to control throttle and brakes into a corner, you will die. If you make noob mistakes, you will die.

Or go buy a big supersport and rock it with natural talent.

Hi this all hangs on one thing new anything will be fine. It is secondhand and how it has been looked after which will decide if it is reliable.

The prime 4 (Suzuki, Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha) basically have the same bikes. Why? People like you. There are small nuances between the bikes, but they can't be too different or they would lose customers. Just about everyone who wants a sport bikes heavily critiques the 4 manufacturers. They are essentially the same technology with slightly different fairings and minor adjustments on powerband. However, any short comings will be countered with a higher rating in a different category.

Prime example, and one of the most common comparisons is the CB250 vs the Ninja 250R. There are forums all over the internet who have been comparing these two bikes for the last several decades. After I got through about 10-15 different websites analysis? They are the same bike. One has a slightly better low end powerband, the other has a slightly higher top end. One has wider powerband, the other has more torque. However to the beginner? They will feel the same as the differences are very minor. So the real question at that point is, which one looks better to you?

BMW's in general I would say are "better" than the rest, but they are significantly more expensive, to the point where they kind of get knocked out of the running for most people. So for a minor improvement in performance, you spend 200% the price? Unless you don't care about cost, that kind of gets eliminated.

Ducatis are similar to BMW in that they are more expensive for minimal if any, improvement over the rest. Most people get them for their look, feel, sound. The higher end panigale type race rockets are a different story, but the lower end "normal" bikes like the Monster, are a bit on the expensive side compared to the competition and plenty of people have reported issues with quality. (Can find plenty of the big 4 with issues too, but still, seems a general consensus that Ducatis are a little more high maintenance.)

A Yamaha R1 is a 1000cc super sport. Will you die on it? Eh, it is entirely possible if you don't respect it, however it is a very poor choice for a beginner. They are heavy, they are torquey, they are expensive, and you can't utilize about 60-70% of the bikes potential legally on the road. Hell you can hit 50mph in 1st gear. So, now what? The police love to follow rockets around and flip out reckless driving tickets or excessive speed tickets. So getting the high end super sports just paints a target on your back.

I won't go into all of the other reasons why supers are bad starter bikes, but you can read around on the internet for that.

As Tom C. Said, the top 4 common brands are basically the same, the differences are minimal.
My advice would be to go for some thing small, like a 250cc or a 300cc, and base your purchase more on the comfort and feel of the bike (ei, sit on it at the dealership) than on some advice about some performance issue that most people won't even be aware of.

If anything, for a first bike, go for a used one that you won't feel bad dropping once in a while, because the fancy plastics on those sports bikes are really expensive. I hear all the time about insurances totaling out a bike because the plastics costs more than the rest of the bike.