There are many factors discouraging people from buying a new motorcycle at the moment. We have a cost of living crisis caused by rising inflation and painful interest rates, all against a backdrop of various crises around the world.
And yet few seem to have been discouraged from walking into a dealership and parting with their hard-earned cash for two-wheeled motorized transport. The Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) has just released its latest sales figures for 2023, with 102,361 motorcycles sold by the end of November, which represents a drop of just 0.7 percent compared to 2022 over the same period. The decline increases slightly to two percent if tricycles and mopeds are included.
The segments that saw the greatest growth include Competition (+7.4 percent), Naked (+6.9 percent) and Road Sport (+3.7 percent). On the other hand, the Modern Classic category fell by 7.7 percent, Scooter by 8.6 percent and Touring by 11.8 percent.
In November, the Adventure motorcycle segment was the clear winner in terms of growth, with a year-on-year increase of 8.6 % to 1,078 units. The launch of the new BMW R1300 GS must have helped – around 10% of the segment’s total (108 sales) can be attributed to this bike. Even so, it is outsold by the best-selling model, the Yamaha NMAX 125, responsible for 431 sales.