VFR1200 boosts Feb bike sales
Added on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | 2 Comments
VFR1200 boosts Feb bike sales
Honda’s VFR1200 boosted the February new motorcycle sales total, with a healthy 97 units snapped up, reports Alastair Walker. The MCIA recently released last month’s sales statistics and Honda’s impressive performance from Feb 13th onwards, when the bike was launched, helped bump up the sports-tourer segment by 59%.
Elsewhere the market continued its relentlessly downward spiral. Custom bikes dropped by 6%, whilst touring and trail machines fell by 12%, relatively modest reductions considering the weather, rising unemployment and the end of the 15% VAT rate in 2010. But other sectors like adventure touring were off 20%, mopeds dropped 28%, naked bikes fell 35% and supersports fell by an alarming 45%.
Total two-wheeler registrations last month were 3197, down 23% and the one positive note is that figure is smaller than the huge drop in January, which saw many dealerships deserted as snowfalls affected daily life.
One interesting figure is that the VFR1200 notched up 97 sales in two weeks, whilst BMW’s new sportbike the S1000RR could only manage 30 sales in the entire month. This despite rave reviews in the motorcycle press for the new BMW and lukewarm reports on the new Honda. Could it be that today’s sportbikes are almost all too uncomfortable for today’s 50-something motorcycle buyer, or is the depreciation suffered by sportbikes the main factor?
Perhaps the most worrying trend in the new machine registration figures is the lack of sales for mopeds and scooters. The recessions of the 70s and 80s both saw large increases in small motorcycle and scooter sales, but the younger generation, and commuters, seemed to have more or less abandoned the idea of motorcycling. Those are arguably two social trends which will see motorcycling in the UK become a pastime for pensioners within a decade. Unless something is done, and soon.
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2 Comments
Dave
March 9th, 2010The figures given are very misleading in the term SALES..
These are registrations of vehicles and not Sales. You have to take into account the number of Honda dealers that have registered Demo bikes, thats close on 40 dealers poss registering 2 demos etc…These figures bigging up how many VFR1200′S SOLD is not all it seems. All the BMW S1000RR registrations will be sold to customer orders, considering 2 weeks of snow in feb, a big well done to BMW should be closer the mark for a supersports machine in feb…All the best , Dave.
Carole Nash Editor
March 11th, 2010Cheers Dave. Yes, nobody knows which bikes are `sold’ because the dealers and the importers won’t tell anyone for commercial reasons. Equally, nobody knows how many demo bikes, which are technically secondhand, are then being sold to mainland EU buyers, thus skewing the UK `sales’ figures further.
In the absence of accurate data we are left with the MCIA statistics on registrations. If the S1000RR really was the top selling supersports bike in Feb, with just 30 sales, it’s a hollow victory for any manufacturer and underlines what I said in the piece; sportsbikes are no longer selling to creaky 50-somethings and they depreciate faster than adventure/touring and some custom models.
The real boom at present is in classic bikes, which are proving a fun investment for older riders but nearly all the sales are via auctions, e-bay, classic clubs and small specialist shops. None are `new’ bikes, although many are hand-crafted with mostly new parts.
Not only are those `sales’ not being counted by the MCIA, but worse still, nobody in the mainstream bike industry seems capable of capitalising on their own remarkable biking heritage, except Harley and Triumph. Where is the Rothmans replica Honda CB1300, or the R1200S in Smoke Gold R90S paintwork, nose fairing, upswept pipes, flat `bars and a retro instrument panel? There must be a queue of 45-65 year olds from Middlesex to Munich who would buy one…
If you look at Norton’s new Commando you see a bike that is totally right for a large percentage of the ageing UK market. It is well made, elegant and likely to hold its value in the long term - it might even outsell the S1000RR, because as great as the BMW is, the Commando is all you can use on the crumbling roads of Britain and it will always draw a crowd when you park it up. Sometimes, motorcycling is really just about showing off your toys…