Japanese motorcycle makers had a good 2024, according to Roger Willis, Finance Editor of the trade paper British Dealer News. By contrast, the ‘legacy’ names such as BMW, Harley-Davidson and Ducati are suffering as sales fall in key markets.

Honda looks set to sell more than 20 million bikes worldwide in the 12 months from March 2024, while Kawasaki (just chosen to provide camera bikes for 2025’s Tour de France) is also on the up. Suzuki is projecting two million sales while Yamaha’s profits have soared to over £650 million to the end of September 2024. Much of their growth comes from developing markets in Asia and India, where demand for smaller bikes continues to grow. “Studiously avoiding the market instability entrapment currently afflicting Western challengers,” wrote Roger Willis, “Japanese motorcycle brands are doing what they do best – selling lots of bikes for lots of money.”

Things aren’t so rosy for the European/US manufacturers, being more dependent on sales of bigger, more expensive machines in their home markets, which are struggling in the face of uncertainty and cost of living pressures. BMW, Ducati and Harley-Davidson all saw profits and sales fall in the first nine months of 2024, while KTM is in big trouble, with several Directors dismissed from the Board.

Jim Freeman, Chair of the BMF said, “This happened before, in the 1960s, when the British bike industry gave up on the small bike market, retreating into the bigger margins of larger engined bikes, which turned into a one-way journey. How many bikes do European manufacturers retail for less than five grand? How many people want a bike that costs way over ten grand? They may want them, but when times are hard, even with the most imaginative finance packages, people have other priorities, a big, upmarket bike is not a ‘must have’ purchase. Hello KTM, can you hear me?”

Written by Peter Henshaw 

Top image courtesy of Honda