Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past few years, you’ll know that it’s a tough economy out there. Money is tight, businesses are closing and it’s been hitting the British motorcycle industry hard, with many dealerships shutting up shop over the winter. New bike sales were down last year, with figures just released showing a 15% drop in registrations compared to 2024.
Motorcycles are discretionary purchases for many of us and that’s affected the market, especially at the higher end of the spectrum, with many owners hanging on to their bikes or downsizing to something smaller and more affordable. Dealers are talking about a reset in the marketplace, with low-capacity bikes like the Honda GB350S and Triumph Speed 400 proving popular with experienced riders, while an improving generation of Chinese motorcycles are shaking up the business by delivering higher specced products at a lower price than those of the legacy manufacturers.
While we are undoubtedly in this process of reshaping the motorcycle market the top of the sales charts had a familiar look to them, with two learner legal scooters again standing out in the final registration data for last year. Trade journal British Dealer News has taken Department for Transport figures to show the current market landscape and, while the make and models of the bikes we are buying are starting to change, it’s the same two scooters (albeit in a different order) which flew out of showrooms.
Honda’s PCX125 and Yamaha’s NMAX, the darlings of commuters and fast food delivery riders, were once again our most popular powered two-wheelers. There were 3226 PCXs registered in 2025, 1309 more than 2024’s best-selling NMAX. Combined sales between the two models were down by around 1000 units, suggesting even that fast moving sector is cooling down a little.
BMW’s big adventure bikes are regularly at the top of the sales charts, and they were a familiar sight on the roads and in 2025’s best seller list. The R 1300 GS Adventure was the third most popular powered two-wheeler in the UK in 2025, recording 1491 registrations. That was 103 more than the base R 1300 GS, which was the fourth best-selling machine. Had figures for the duo been combined, together they would have surpassed the NMAX to take second in the overall sales chart. As it is, the BMWs are the best-selling geared motorcycles in the UK, and by quite a margin. It returns the ubiquitous adventure bike to the top of the charts, after a changeover year in 2024 when the old 1250 was phased out in favour of the latest 1300 platform.
Another Honda scooter is in fifth place. The humble Vision 110, the cheapest bike in the top 20 at £2299, had 1341 registrations last year, 200 more than the year before, and most of those will likely have been put to work delivering pizzas up and down the country.
Sixth was another adventure bike, with the Triumph Tiger 900 flying in a little under the radar. Unlike the R 1300 GS models, which are separated out, the Tiger 900 GT and Rally variants are lumped together with 1143 registrations across all derivatives. The new Tiger Sport 800 was another popular addition, shifting 775 units to be Britain’s 10th most popular powered two-wheeler. Other Triumphs in the top 20 are last year’s best-selling Speed 400 (11th), Trident 660 (17th) and Street Triple (19th).
The Speed 400 was last year’s best seller over 125cc (fourth overall) with 1570 registrations but, as is usual, sales dipped in year two. It still remained popular though, with 753 riders putting a new 400 in their garage, while a further 535 examples of the Scrambler 400X found new homes. Taking over the role of the favourite A2 retro bike was Honda’s cute little GB350S. It was our seventh most popular PTW, with 1131 released into the wild, while Honda’s popular workhorse, NC750X was updated last year and became the eighth most popular machine of 2025 with 890 registrations.
While the legacy manufacturers dominated the sales charts, Chinese brands continued to rise in popularity. Lexmoto have been a fixture in the UK for well over a decade now, and their sporty, learner-legal, LXR125 shifted 864 to be ninth in the annual sales chart.
That was the only Chinese model to feature in the top 20 best seller list, but Lexmoto was the country’s sixth most popular manufacturer – its 3978 units being more than KTM, Royal Enfield, Suzuki and Ducati. All of the top 10 manufacturers showed a decline in registrations last year. Honda was the top seller, with 17,514 registrations representing a 3.75% decline over the same period 12 months ago.
More than one in five new bikes sold in the UK are Hondas, and the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer sold more than second and third place combined. Yamaha had a 23.33% dip to 8438 registrations, with Triumph 18.11% down in third – less than 150 units ahead of BMW. The German company registered three bikes shy of 8000 units, which was almost double that of Kawasaki, Britain’s fifth best-selling motorbike manufacturer. Overall registrations were down by 15%, although the number was skewed by the number of pre-registrations made in 2024 as dealers were forced to register bikes not complying to Euro5+. These were subsequently sold as ‘second hand’ bikes, usually with a generous discount.
Chinese brand Voge was Britain’s 11th biggest selling motorcycle brand in 2025, registering 1895 units to almost triple their 2024 sales, but there were losers as well as winners. KTM, Suzuki and Royal Enfield all took massive hits in 2025, dropping between 37% and 39% over the previous year.
Electric motorcycles again failed to make a breakthrough in 2025. Vmoto crept into the top 20 overall manufacturers with 847 registrations (an increase of 96 on 2024) of their learner legal range of models. According to BDN, their Super Soco CPx was the highest registering electric at 547 but, beyond that, it was mostly a sea of red for the battery powered bikes with almost no appetite for full power EV bikes.
Neither LiveWire or Zero appear in the top 50 list of manufacturers, or even in the top 10 of electric bike makers. Low volume scooter manufacturer Segway was the 10th most popular electric brand in the UK with 60 registrations, suggesting the number of ‘big’ electric bikes registered in the UK remains firmly in double digits.
While the 2025 registration figures make depressing reading in some ways, they don’t tell the full story. Registrations do not directly equal new bikes and there’s no accurate record of how many people grabbed a bargain pre-registered, pre-Euro5+, machine which was effectively a brand new motorcycle but sold as a second-hand machine with one previous keeper. Those numbers won’t necessarily turn a negative into a positive, but the figures are likely not quite as bad as they might first appear.
There’s also expectations of a better 2026. Quarter one registrations were up across Europe, while April, May and June registrations have been up by between 13% and 18% a month in the UK. Tony Campbell, CEO of the Motorcycle Industry Association, appears content enough with the figures, but urges the government to do more to support the bike industry, saying: “As we reach halfway through the calendar year, the June market is another positive message, demonstrating the continued appeal of mopeds, motorcycles and other vehicles in our sector, despite the economic pressures facing both businesses and consumers.
“With a shake up on the horizon for this government, we continue to be adamant in our view that our sector needs support and that this government must respond positively to the on-going rider licence review. By agreeing to meet with our sector, we can discuss a concrete plan around how our industry is central to this government’s new transport strategy.
“This strong year-on-year growth again highlights the important role our sector plays in providing affordable and practical transport, but we now need to see action from government to ensure that this can be a secure transport solution available to all communities across the UK.”
It will be interesting to see how 2026 continues to evolve. Without the Euro5+ pre-registrations, next year’s stats should give a clearer indication of motorcycling’s direction in this country. We don’t expect too many changes in the top five. BMW’s new F 450 GS should prove popular, but is likely coming into showrooms too late to make too big an impression over the full 12 months, as are Honda’s competitively priced CB1000F derivatives. Halfway through the year, early suggestions are that the PCX and NMAX will continue to lead the way, with the big GS and Honda’s GB350S continuing to be our most popular motorcycles, although we wouldn’t be surprised to see the BSA Bantam 350 and a few bigger capacity Chinese bikes break into the top 20.
UK’s top 10 highest registering powered two wheelers in 2025
- Honda PCX125 (3226)
- Yamaha NMAX 125 (1917)
- BMW R 1300 GS Adventure (1491)
- BMW R 1300 GS (1388)
- Honda Vision 110 (1341)
- Triumph Tiger 900 (1143)
- Honda GB350S (1131)
- Honda NC750X (890)
- Lexmoto LXR125 (864)
- Triumph Tiger Sport 800 (775)
