The MCIA, the motorcycle industry trade association in the UK, has announced that April new motorcycle registrations were up by +12.5 percent over April 2014 at 10,152 units; for the year-to-date the UK is +13.7 percent (33,481 units).
This is the largest sale of new models in the first four months of the year (and best April market performance) seen in the UK since the 34,000 units reported in 2009.
In total PTW terms the market in the UK was +11 percent for April (10,950 units) and +11.5 percent for the year-to-date (36,199 units).
'Naked' style bikes (+33.6 percent/9,441 units YTD), Adventure Sport models (+20.5 percent/5,703 units YTD) and SuperSport bikes (+15.3 percent/4,573 units YTD) continue to be the best sellers in the UK, with Tourers and Sports Tourers losing market share (-16.7 and -12.7 percent respectively).
Some 26 percent of all the motorcycles sold in the UK so far this year were in the 651 - 1,000 cc power band. In April Honda was the most popular brand in the UK (1,890 units sold), ahead of Yamaha (1,526 units) and Triumph (856 units). The top-selling model in the UK in April was the Yamaha MT09 Tracer.
Data from the MCIA shows that in 2014 the total number of motorcycles in use in the UK remained stable at 1.2 million units; the total distance ridden by motorcycle in 2013 was 4.4 billion km (2.7 billion miles); but that, alarmingly, the number of motorcycle rider test passes is now down to what is believed to be the lowest figure seen in modern times at just 30,500 new riders.
