Covid boom continues
One upside of this horrible year is that thousands of new riders are getting on bikes
‘The training schools all have waiting lists of people wanting to do their CBT’
Fears of catching Covid on public transport are still powering a boom in commuter bike sales that could boost motorcycling for years to come. Dealers in cities report that motorcycle and scooter sales are still so high that their main problem is getting enough stock to satisfy demand.
‘We were never quite cleaned out, but there were times when we were worried,’ says Patrick Copeland, sales manager at London’s Central Bikes, a dealer specialising in commuter bikes but also stocking new KTMS and Moto Guzzis. ‘Thankfully because we’re a multi-brand dealer when one brand was running low, we’d get stock from another. The demand for 125s and 50cc has been massive. ‘Everything was pre-sold. Bikes landed and were gone. Although the demand isn’t as high now as it was in the summer, it’s still high. For example, all the Mutt models coming in now are pre-sold – people have been waiting three months for them. We’re one of the biggest Vespa dealers in the country and there was a point when we had just two new Vespas in stock.’ And it wasn’t all scooters and cheaper brands. ‘By September we had sold all of our KTM models – 125 Duke, 390 Duke, everything – and we won’t see anything new until March.’ Though many of these city riders will have no interest in buying a bigger motorcycle, it’s inevitable some will. ‘You couldn’t put a test ride campaign together that would be better than this,’ says Nick Broomhall from the Motorcycle
Industry Association
(MCIA). ‘This has been fabulous at getting people to experience riding a bike. The holy grail for the industry is getting people to try powered two-wheelers and that’s what’s been happening because of Covid. The training schools I’ve spoken to still all have waiting lists of people wanting to do their
CBT.’ Patrick from Central Bikes has already seen the upgrading process in action. ‘I’ve had several guys who bought a scooter and have come back saying, “wow, I love this, let’s get on a 125 manual”.’