My Motorcycle Check’s Rob Hobson has chosen the 2004-05-model Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade as his bike of the month, describing it as “the stand-out model in the Fireblade story”.
“Find a good example and you can’t go wrong. Genuine Repsol replica models in particular are great.”
As to market trends, Hobson said: “Despite the rather wet summer, the new-bike market continues to grow. It was up 13.1% to end of July compared with last year. The general feeling is that demand held up well during August and that September’s new plate should provide a further boost.
“The naked and adventure sport sectors are both recording strong growth. Combined, they now account for around two-thirds of the entire new market. It is also worth noting that the sports style category is showing an 11% increase (equating to an additional 900 units registered), while the touring and sports-tour sectors are both down.
“The PCX125 Honda Scooter tops the overall sales chart by model, with the Yamaha MT09 Tracer and MT07 ABS both significant in the market. Ducati has carved a good niche with its Scrambler variants.”
Hobson says July’s statistics provide a snapshot of how the market has changed. “While it is no surprise that Honda and Yamaha still top the manufacturer sales table, surely few would have predicted five years ago that they would be followed by Lexmoto and BMW. With Suzuki and Kawasaki behind Triumph and just above KTM, Piaggio is in danger of falling out of the top ten.
“The success of the naked and adventure sport sectors is reflected in the used market. We have reduced most used values slightly this month, which is normal for the time of year, and we don’t see any major changes in the short term.”
My Motorcycle Check’s parent company, CDL Vehicle Information Services, performs over a million look-ups a day for companies including AutoExpress, CompareTheMarket, Go-Compare, Moneysupermarket, Swiftcover, Tesco Compare and WhatCar?.
It uses up-to-the-minute data from the Police, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and major finance houses including Lloyds TSB and Santander.