Sales of motorbikes, fuelled by soaring fuel prices, have increased by 22% in July. Motorcycle registrations in July were 14,306, an increase of 2,578 over the same month last year, while total registrations for the first seven months of the year are up 1% at 87,551. In contrast, the car market in the UK fell almost 13% in July and is nearly 3% down from the beginning of the year.
In July, registrations of bikes of up to 50cc increased by more than 35% and engines from 51cc to 125cc increased by almost 31%. Bikes with engines from 651cc to 1,000cc increased by 40%. Scooter and moped (up to 50cc) sales increased by almost 27% and 34.5% respectively while naked motorcycles performed strongly with a 46.5% increase. The only category to show a decline in the month was trail / enduro bikes with -7.9%.
The biggest-selling make in the UK in July was Honda with 2,011 registrations followed by Yamaha (1,860) and Suzuki (1,486) while the best-selling bikes were two Yamaha 125cc models, the YZF R125 with 338 units and the YBR 125 with 277 units.