In March of 2007, the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) released their statistics for 2006 U.S. motorcycle sales. Here’s what they report:
| 2005 | 2006 | % Change | |
| Scooter | 56,899 | 54,268 | - 4.6% |
| Street | 646,097 | 680,679 | + 5.4% |
| Dual Sport |
29,610 | 35,245 | + 19.0% |
| Off-Road | 276,982 | 252,140 | - 9.0% |
| Total | 1,009,588 | 1,022,332 | + 1.3% |
What you don’t see in these numbers is that 2006 marks the 14th year in a row for rising street bike purchases.
2006 is also the 4th year in a row that motorcycle sales have been above 1 million (including all the types noted above), which approaches the popularity of motorcycling in the 1970’s. The MIC notes 1973 as the crest for annual US motorcycle sales: back then it was 1.5 million. Bike sales declined in the 80’s and early 90’s and they have been going up each year since 1993.
Although overall motorcycle sales have marginally climbed (1.3%), the numbers show it’s not an across-the-boards increase. At 19%, the change in dual-sport sales marks the greatest rise.
On the other hand, I’m surprised that scooter sales have gone down at the same time as an increasing interest in fuel economy coupled with rising fuel prices. Back in the first quarter of 2005, the U.S. national average of a gallon of unleaded gas crossed the $2.00 mark and hasn’t returned. What will next year’s numbers show for scooters?
The off-road category is also interesting. In addition to the 9% drop seen on the graph, these numbers do not show that ATV sales also went down 4.2% in the same time period. That dispels any conjecture that a bunch of dirt riders migrated to quads. Your guess is as good as mine, but are some dirt guys going to dual sport?
Using BMW as a separate source of data, the tremendous success of their GS series of larger displacement “Adventure” bikes may be taking some of the dirt riders.
Regardless of how many, or how few, dirt riders are going this direction, I would guess riders are being attracted to dual-sport machines and GS’s from all other categories, and taking in new riders as well. (I would like to see some stats on that).
According to BMW’s own 2006 numbers published in January 2007 reporting on their GS series, “Not only is it the market leader by far among the large-volume enduro motorcycles, it is probably one of the best-selling motorcycle models worldwide in the category over 500 cc.” That’s a big statement but their GS bike sales are definitely doing well.
It could also be speculated that if you are buying or selling a used bike, expect better discounts in the dirt, and look for higher prices on anything that does street and dirt well. (Of course one could argue that there is no such thing as a bike that handles both street and dirt well. See earlier post on dual-purpose bikes.)
