New motorcycle sales dropping - dealers shutting.

[premmington]

Thinking about replacing my little Honda scooter with a newer bigger one. ADV 350 or the X ADV.

Nearest Honda dealership to me is either Bury St Eds or Peterborough.

Popped over to Bury one afternoon last week - to have a look.

I conclude model range has shrunk - had a look round the showroom and it suddenly hit me - I couldn't help but feeling like I was standing "in a struggling toy shop for old people". Reason being there was nobody young in or around the dealership at the time I was there.

Got chatting with salesman - he looked demoralised that I did not want PHP/HP/Finance - he lost interest when he worked out - I just wanted to put my hand in my pocket and buy one.

Had a look on the internet - KTM CCM and MUTT have all either stopped trading or are in trouble.

 

[pint]

sur ron and illegal ebikes are doing a roaring trade tho

 

[Greeves246]

KTM look to be now ok thanks to Bajaj.

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[premmington]

sur ron and illegal ebikes are doing a roaring trade tho

 

[Jack Pattenden]

See now, I got excited because I thought you were telling us motorcycles are going on sale.

 

[8ob]

I conclude model range has shrunk - had a look round the showroom and it suddenly hit me - I couldn't help but feeling like I was standing "in a struggling toy shop for old people". Reason being there was nobody young in or around the dealership at the time I was there.

Now if Honda were to fit an engine and wheels to an Iphone


Bob

 

[ajlelectronics]

Now if Honda were to fit an engine and wheels to an Iphone


Bob

You would have invented the "Tesla".

 

[mtt.tr]

Chinese and Indians will have the market sewn up before long

 

[addjunkie]

Chinese and Indians will have the market sewn up before long

Yes I think the japs and Italians will go the way of uk bike makers….out priced and eventually out performed. The main driver will be value for money. 15k or 6k for similar with different badges.

 

[Robbie260]

I mean a bmw gs is now over 20 grand I last heard who’s gonna pay that for a bike? Thought the whole point was they were supposed to be a cheap form of motorised transport or racing machine with super car performance by comparison to a car. As a few have said only really see royal Enfield or some of the Chinese brands offering affordable bikes these days ie in the 3k-6k bracket.

 

[premmington]

I mean a bmw gs is now over 20 grand I last heard who’s gonna pay that for a bike? Thought the whole point was they were supposed to be a cheap form of motorised transport or racing machine with super car performance by comparison to a car. As a few have said only really see royal Enfield or some of the Chinese brands offering affordable bikes these days ie in the 3k-6k bracket.

I would agree BMW GS @ £20k is huge money for two wheels - but have you seen the cost of four wheeled BMW cars...?

Scooters are £3 to £6k (125cc to 400cc). X ADV Honda I was looking at was over £12k with heated grips.

There just is no cheaper motoring anymore.

 

[mtt.tr]

I would agree BMW GS @ £20k is huge money for two wheels - but have you seen the cost of four wheeled BMW cars...?

Scooters are £3 to £6k (125cc to 400cc). X ADV Honda I was looking at was over £12k with heated grips.

There just is no cheaper motoring anymore.

Cfmoto 4k for an adventure bike

Voge 3.5k for a 350 adventure
Their big adventure bike 7k with luggage

Chinese have it

Yes I think the japs and Italians will go the way of uk bike makers….out priced and eventually out performed. The main driver will be value for money. 15k or 6k for similar with different badges.

Yup I agree.



However secondhand I bought a r1200gs full luggage 2.7k I've been to Poland and back. Will be headed to Northern Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium in September

That's value that's hard to beat

 

[premmington]

Cfmoto 4k for an adventure bike

Voge 3.5k for a 350 adventure
Their big adventure bike 7k with luggage

Chinese have it



Yup I agree.



However secondhand I bought a r1200gs full luggage 2.7k I've been to Poland and back. Will be headed to Northern Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium in September

That's value that's hard to beat

Voge Rally - 3.8k for a 300cc thing - did look at them - Locin engine.

Locin engine is such a copy of the Kawasaki KLX 300 engine - the oil filters and waterpumps listed fit both are the same.

 

[minimutly]

I mean a bmw gs is now over 20 grand I last heard who’s gonna pay that for a bike? Thought the whole point was they were supposed to be a cheap form of motorised transport or racing machine with super car performance by comparison to a car. As a few have said only really see royal Enfield or some of the Chinese brands offering affordable bikes these days ie in the 3k-6k bracket.

Yep, a bike for me will always be a fun toy. Spending £Thousands on one is just not going to happen, for me anyway, Crikey, I won't spend that on a car..

 

[Erie Fred]

I see Harley's with "For Sale" signs everywhere as of late......

 

[m_c]

Local Harley (and Kawasaki) dealership closed earlier this year, citing poor sales.
Last job was directly opposite them, and used to quite enjoy the music from their outdoor bar at weekends.

I think Kawasaki has been picked up by another small dealer, but certainly nothing on the scale of the big showroom they used to have.

 

[premmington]

Local Harley (and Kawasaki) dealership closed earlier this year, citing poor sales.
Last job was directly opposite them, and used to quite enjoy the music from their outdoor bar at weekends.

I think Kawasaki has been picked up by another small dealer, but certainly nothing on the scale of the big showroom they used to have.

In the town I live in - in 1983 there were six motorcycle shops - which two of them were Jap dealers.

Now we only have two that are struggling. One sells more bicycles than motorbikes - the other while still trading has diversified into all Chinese brand motorbikes and does car sales and container storage as well.

Others have come and gone - hard trade a motorcycle shop. Hard way to earn your money for sure...

 

[Domdom]

I don’t see this in Spain, certainly as far as scooter sales go. They are everywhere, mainly because they’re cheap to run. They tend to be about 300cc, you still have to do a test regardless of engine size and the bigger scooters tend to be 4 stroke, so less noisy and temperamental.

Where I grew up there were a number of motorcycle places, Japanese and British. Last time I went back, about 2014, they were all still there. But I do know the Harley place in Birmingham merged with other brands in Wolverhampton I think.

But if new sales are waning, what about used bike values? Are the customers going away with a consequential drop in values? Or is everyone trying to buy used and driving values up?

 

[bricol]

My dad used to ride a motorbike when he was in the Navy at the tail end of the war.

His theory in the 80s was, there's no British motorbike industry - ban them.

 

[Agroshield]

The market has changed and that changes the relationship buyers have with the dealers.

Look at the number of scooters being used by the food delivery companies. They are 'fleet' buys where a company will buy 10 of the same model and then make individual leasing agreements with each rider. For that style of buying, a bricks and mortar dealer and salesforce is not needed.

For the type of work they do, the electric machines are close enough in performance and in urban areas, electric bicycles. That is eating away at the lower (performance/requirement/range/cost) end of the market demand.