The latest data released by the motorcycle industry trade association in the UK (MCIA) shows that new motorcycle registrations for February 2016 were +26.66 percent at 4,423 units for the month and are +21.26 percent for the year-to-date at 9,650 units.
In total PTW terms, February was +24.77 percent (4,972 units) and the total PTW market for the year-to-date in the UK is running at +19.07 percent (10,677 units). Total Moped sales in the UK are up by +1.8 percent at 1,027 units for the first two months of the year.
The 'Naked' style (16.2 percent/2,334 units YTD) is the largest motorcycle sector by style so far in 2016, with the custom market (+32.4 percent) the fastest growing so far this year in the UK.
In displacement terms, as elsewhere in Europe, the fastest growing sector of the market in the UK is the 'middleweight' 651 - 1000cc market, which was +26.0 percent for the first two months of 2016. Scooter sales in the UK were +22.4 percent in the UK for 2016 so far at 3,895 units.
Honda were market share leaders in the UK in February, selling 903 units; followed by Lexmoto, Yamaha, KTM, Piaggio, BMW, Triumph, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Harley-Davidson. The highest selling motorcycle of greater than 125cc in the UK in February was Honda's new 'Africa Twin'; the highest +1000cc bike was BMW’s R 1200 GS.
The UK 'bike park' is now said to stand at 1.2 million units - a figure that has remained largely static since 2011; 34,600 people passed the motorcycle rider test in the UK in 2014/15 - which is some 4,000 more than in the previous 12 months; the MCIA says that some 4.6 billion km (2.8 billion miles) were ridden on two wheels on the roads of the UK in 2014 - a figure that has remained largely static since 2011.
