Motorcycle sales stalling?
While it cautions that final numbers are not out, the Motorcycle Industry Council put motorcycle sales for 2010 at 439,678 bikes, a fall of 82,198 units or 15.8 percent from 2009. The 2009 number was itself a drop of 40 percent from 2008.
The website WebBike World also put total U.S. motorcycle sales last year at 439,678 but said that was down from 521,876 motorcycles sold in 2009, a fall of about 18.5 percent.
Compared to 2005, when motorcycle sales reached about 1.1 million total, that’s a drop of more than 50 percent in five years, WebBike World said.
DAYTON — Joey Seyfferle, vice president of Joe’s Cycle Shop, has seen tough times.
Workers at what was then Delphi’s nearby Needmore Road plant would often visit his North Dixie Drive motorcycle dealership for gear, parts and even new bikes. When the plant closed in 2008, Seyfferle’s shop saw a corresponding drop in business.
“We lost a big customer base with that,” he said.
Joe’s continues to operate, but other local motorcycle shops are in transition. Southside Honda in Moraine recently closed. The owner of F&S Harley-Davidson in Vandalia, Gary Stolzenburg, said last week he intends to sell his dealership.
Nationally, sales for motorcycles have fallen at least two years in a row.
Dave Stradling, owner of Honda Powersports of Troy, blames the economy. When times are tough, he said, recreational vehicles like motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles are some of the first expenses to be cut, he said.
“Those are not things they (customers) have to have,” Stradling said. “These are wants.”
Stradling said his own dealership held steady in sales last year compared to 2009.
“I hope that we have survived the toughest two years,” he said.
American Honda Motor Co. has 100 fewer motorcycle dealers in the United States compared to a year ago, Stradling said.
Bill Savino, a spokesman for Torrance, Calif.-based American Honda, said the company has about 1,150 U.S. dealers, and he acknowledged that number is down from 2009, although he would not say by how many.
“We have dealers closing in the good times, and we have dealers closing in the bad times, as we have now,” he said.
While Honda offers sales figures for cars and trucks, it does not disclose motorcycle sales.
Savino said that while three new motorcycles were once sold for every used bike, that ratio has reversed to three or four used motorcycles sold for every new two-wheeler. And parts and service sales are up, he said.
Sales of motorcycles have dropped, acknowledges Ty van Hooydonk, spokesman for the Motorcycle Industry Council, but tire sales indicate that riders still rack up the miles, he said.
The number of bikes on the road is up as well, van Hooydonk said. In 2009, the most recent year for which the council has data, about 11 million motorcycles were in use, an increase of 500,000 from 2008, he said.
In 2003, 8.8 million motorcycles were on the road, he added. In 1998, the number was 6.6 motorcycles.
“Motorcycling has become a part of the fabric of American culture,” van Hooydonk said. “It’s everywhere.”
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