After a big jump in the sales of new motorcycles in September, fueled by the latest batch of number plates, things went somewhat flat in October with the UK market up just 0.3% for the month.
Sales of mopeds increased by 0.6% when compared with October of 2015, whilst the sale of new motorcycles and larger capacity scooters increased by 0.2% according to new figures released this week.
Sales of new Trail & Enduro machines rose by an impressive 11.1%, with Touring bike sales also up 8.5%. Naked and Scooter registrations also increased by 6.9% and 6.8% respectively, as those styles of machine continue to increase in popularity with riders. Adventure Sport registrations fell by -4.5%, and Custom sales also dropped by -6.3%. Sales of Supersport bikes were down -9.8%, and Sport Touring registrations fell by an alarming -51.2% from 287 units in October 2015, to 140 units in October of this year.
In terms of sales by engine band, the 0 – 50cc segment saw an increase in registrations of 0.4%, although it remains down -7.7% for the year to the end of October. Registrations of learner legal 51 – 125cc bikes dropped by -1.7%, although is up 7.6% for the aforementioned period. Sales of A2 licence legal 126 – 650cc bikes increased by 6.0%, whereas those of 651 – 1000cc bikes fell by -12.5%, although again this segment of the market is up more than 5% thus far for the year. Finally, the sales of new machines over 1000cc rose by 16.8% in October.
Honda once again top the sales by manufacturer leader board, with 1,522 new units registered. Yamaha moved 1,216 new bikes to take 2nd spot, followed by Lexmoto with 671. In fourth spot are Triumph with 507, then KTM (421), Harley-Davidson (414), Piaggio (390) and BMW (337).
The top selling machine of the month was Honda’s ever popular PCX125 scooter, with 269 new ones sold in October..
By style, the most popular bikes of October 2016 were as follows:
- Adventure Sport – BMW R1200GS
- Custom – Keeway Superlight
- Naked – Honda CBF125
- Scooter – Honda PCX125
- Sport Touring – Kawasaki Z1000SX
- Supersport – Yamaha YZF-R125 ABS
- Touring – Harley-Davidson Street Glide
- Trail & Enduro – Honda CRF250L
With two month’s of sales figures still to come before we close out the year, we’re just over 4,000 new bike sales away from surpassing last year’s impressive total of 114,160.
From 1st January to the end of October 2016, dealers have already sold 110,010 new motorcycles, scooters and mopeds.
