Now the good news

We don’t usually recommend the reading of annual financial reports. Especially when the topline figure under whelms. However, dig deeper…

IF SPRING IS in the air then it must be time for manufacturer’s financial reports – not usually a source of pleasure, but despite an 18.5% drop in UK sales at the end of last year, most are upbeat. Based on this lot, the stream of new bikes should keep flowing:

Royal Enfield: sales up 23%

Key bike in the pipeline: 2019 electric Enfield. Figures just out show that between April 2017 and March 2018 Royal Enfield sold a frankly staggering 820,492 bikes. In the same period the year before it was 666,490. As you’d expect the bulk of the sales are in the Indian market (801,230),with just 19,262 heading to the rest of the world. Royal Enfield have grown 16-fold in the last eight years.

BMW: sales up 13%

Key bike in the pipeline: 2019 S1000RR. Five years ago BMW sold 115,215 bikes. Last year they sold 164,153, their seventh year of growth in a row. What’s more, whereas most of the Japanese manufacturers are concentrating on sales in Asia (ie small bikes), BMW’S strongest growth was in Europe. BMW sold over 50,000 GS models in 2017.

Triumph: sales up 11%

Key bike in the pipeline: 2020 Daytona 765. Revamped Street Triple, new Speed Triple 765, new Tiger 1200, new Speedmaster, new Bobber Black, new Tiger 800, Triumph’s new bike push over the last year has been as relentless as it is successful. They built 63,404 bikes in 2017, up 7151 on the year before. 2018 should be even stronger.

Ducati: sales up 1%

Key bike in the pipeline: 2020 electric Ducati. With 55,871 bikes sold in 2017 it was a solid performance for Ducati. The Scrambler accounted for 14,061 sales, and the Italian market loved the new Multistrada 950 with 12% growth there. But Asia is where the big growth is going to come from and Ducati have only just got started, selling just 5800 bikes there in the last year.

And the rest

Suzuki up 13% to 1.5m sales Honda up 6.3% to 11.2m sales Yamaha up 8% to 5.4m sales Kawasaki up 0% to 366,000 sales KTM up 17% to 238,334 sales Harley down 9% to 241,498

‘Triumph’s new bike push has been as relentless as it is successful’