Mystery of falling sales

The number of used bikes bought and sold is up – so are the number of riders on the road and the total number of miles we’re riding – so why have new bike sales taken a tumble?

According to the Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCI) – which tracks UK sales charts – it’s more to do with a huge rush to register new bikes in the early part of last year than a fall in interest this season.

In June last year thousands of bikes were being rushed out of dealers’ doors at bargain prices because they didn’t comply with new ‘Type Approval’ rules. Dealers had to register stocks of bikes by June 17, 2003, to avoid complicated new procedures for bikes including the 03 Yamaha Fazer.

So when new motorcycle registrations for June 2004 turned out to be just 15,189 compared to 26,947 in June 2003, the MCI was keen to warn that this does not mean there’s a declining interest in motorcycling.

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The MCI says that a sharp fall in monthly registration figures for the past 12 months is because many bikes sold in the latter half of 2003 had already been registered so did not appear in the monthly reports after June. The number of bikes being sold and then registered in early 2004 has inevitably been compared against the boom in pre-Type Approval registrations the previous year.

The MCI estimates that, through both early promotion and last-minute pre-sale registration, around 13,000 non-Type Approved bikes were registered in the first six months of 2003 that would otherwise have been registered after June 17.

The top 10 biggest selling bikes/scooters in the UK up to the end of June 2004 are:

1. Yamaha R1 (1928)

2. Honda CBR600RR (1345)

3. Honda CBR125R (1256

4. Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade (1218)

5. Suzuki SV650S (1025)

6. Honda SCV100 Lead (1014)

7. Suzuki GSX-R1000 (986)

8. Suzuki GSX-R600 (971)

9. Suzuki GSX-R750 (958)

10. Piaggio NRG scooter (918)

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