The percentage increase may be falling, but positive official statistics for June from the Motorcycle Industry Association show that new two wheel registrations were up again for the 4th month in a row when compared with the same month in 2013. This news follows however some less positive news, which shows that the number of new riders taking a practical test has fallen by around a third following licence rule changes in January 2013, and we will look at those figures in more detail a little later on.
Overall for June 2014, new two wheel registrations were up by 6.3% with 11,015 registrations in total versus 10,367 in June of the previous year. However, after a brief increase last month there has been a sharp drop in moped registrations up to 50cc of 10.9% leaving that segment of the market 4.7% down on the first six months of last year. For the motorcycle segment however there was an 8.1% increase which is equivalent to an additional 760 units.
The biggest rise came in the form of a 48.1% jump in the registration of new naked bikes, with close to 1000 additional new units being registered in June 2014 when compared with June 2013. There was a small increase of 1.8% for adventure sport bikes, and a small 3.1% increase for touring bikes too. However the sport touring segment saw a surprise fall with a 27.9% drop equivalent to 177 fewer units sold than in June 2013. There was also a smaller fall of 6.5% in the custom segment, and a 1.2% fall in supersport sales.
In terms of engine band there was a 15.2% rise (300 additional units) in the registration of new machines over 1000cc and a similarly strong rise of 14.2% (485 units) in the 51-125cc category. The 651-1000cc category also saw a rise of 7.9% equivalent to an extra 181 units in June 2014. There was a big drop of 13.1% in the 126-650cc engine band, although this segment still remains up by 1.8% for the year as a whole so far. The 0-50cc engine band also saw a drop of 102 units, or 9.8% when compared with June 2013.
The Japanese manufacturers take up four of the top six spots by brand this June with Honda topping the table again with 1996 units registered, followed by Yamaha with 1591. Triumph take 3rd spot with 1192, followed by BMW (885), Kawasaki (587) and Suzuki (577) respectively.
The top registering model of the month was the Honda CBF125M which saw 333 registrations in June 2014, and broken down by style the top selling models were as follows:
- Adventure Sport – BMW R1200GS
- Custom – Triumph Bonneville America 865
- Naked – Honda CBF125M
- Scooter – Yamaha XC115S
- Sport Touring – Kawasaki K1000SX
- Supersport – Yamaha YZF R125
- Touring – BMW F800GT
- Trail & Enduro – Honda CRF250L
However this rise in motorcycle and scooter registrations is set against a back drop of falling numbers of people taking their practical test ever since the licence rules were changed back in January 2013.
So where are these new units going? The popularity of the Honda CBF125M and the Yamaha YZF R1 and the growth in registrations of 51-125cc machines suggests that plenty of poeple are taking their CBT, and discussions with industry figures at the recent Bridgestone Battlax S20 EVO launch at Portimao saw a number of people mention that their test schools had never been busier.
However, it looks like less of those learner riders are moving up to a bigger bike. In 2012/13 66,050 people took their Module 1 practical, but this fell by around 20,000 to just 46,263 riders in the 2013/14 period. There was a similar drop for the Module 2 practical with 65,128 taking the test in 2012/13 and just 43,475 in 2013/14.
The group who are most affected by the changes are the under 19s who cannot get a bike bigger than a 125cc machine. Only 353 16-17 year olds took the Module 1 in 2013/14, whereas more than 3,000 took it in the year prior to the changes. Eighteen year old riders taking the test were also down from 2,787 in 2012/13 to just 151 in 2013/14. This is understandable as the more expensive big bike test doesn’t automatically give them access to a bigger bike, so has little advantage at that age.
The fall was slightly less for 19 year olds who can get direct access to an A2 bike under the new rules, although the drop was still around 50% to 1,377 in 2013/14. Riders over the age of 24 who qualify for direct access saw a much smaller fall with 2,563 taking their Module 1 in 2012/13 compared with 2,396 in 2013/14.
The flat lining of the 126-650cc engine band this year could indicate that young riders just aren’t moving on to A2 bikes when they have the chance. How many of these young riders are just using their 125cc machines as a cheap commute until a car becomes a viable option is unclear, and it will be interesting to see how many of these riders have the patience and the drive to complete their test and move on to something bigger when the time comes.
Several figures at the recent Bridgestone launch said that they were seeing many established riders now coming back and purchasing a second bike, for example an adventure sport bike which gives them a different option in the garage when they decide to go out and ride. The other question this throws up is are they riding twice as much, or doing the same number of miles but split across two bikes?
