Motorcycle sales continue to BOOM
By, Trevor Hedge

Official sales figures for 2006 are in and a close examination of the figures produces some interesting facts. (Hondax Note: These figures are for the last six months in Australia.)

Honda continues to lead the market with an overall share in excess of 25%. Big Red sold 3065 more vehicles than arch rival and closest competitor Yamaha. Suzuki remains a very clear third place in the brand rankings a long way behind Yamaha, but with a very clear lead over fourth placed Kawasaki. Suzuki sold 14815 motorcycles in 2006 to Kawasaki’s 9491. WA based dirt specialists KTM maintain a slender advantage over Harley-Davidson to hold down fifth spot on the charts shipping 5930 of the Austrian machines from their vast Welshpool warehouse. British manufacturer Triumph took seventh place on the charts and the top ten were rounded out by ATV brand Polaris, scooter specialist Bolwell and budget road bike maker Hyosung. The only other brands to sell more than 1000 machines were Vmoto, Vespa, BMW, Bug and Ducati.

Thanks to Australia Post Honda’s CT110X remained the overall biggest selling motorcycle in the land while the remainder of the top ten was dominated by off road machinery with Honda filling another five spots with the CRF450X, CRF230F, CRF50F, CRF250R and CRF450R. Yamaha’s off road strength was underlined by the PW50 kids fun bike second overall ahead of the WR450F. The TT-R50 took ninth place by the slimmest of margins ahead of Suzuki’s long running DR-Z400E. For the first time in some years Yamaha’s WR250F failed to make the overall top ten.

In the sportsbike segment of the market Honda took both first and second places with the CBR1000RR Fireblade and CBR600RR machines despite both models selling in slightly smaller numbers than in 2005. Yamaha’s YZF-R6 rounded out the sportsbike podium ahead of Suzuki’s GSX-R1000 which pushed the YZF-R1 down to fifth spot. Suzuki took sixth and seventh with the GSX-R750 and GSX-R600. Honda has declared their intention to try and keep the Fireblade number one by recently announcing that the 2007 model will retail for $17,290 which is a full $1,700 cheaper than the machine retailed for in 2006.

Honda also took pole position in the motocross market with the CRF250R and CRF450R machines enjoying a healthy margin over Yamaha’s YZ450F and YZ250F. To its great disappointment Suzuki failed to register a top ten position in the motocross ranks despite riders such as Ricky Carmichael and Daryl Hurley bringing the marque great success on the racetrack.

Honda’s new CRF450X made significant inroads towards the top of the enduro category but failed to knock Yamaha’s WR450F off the number 1 spot. Suzuki’s DR-Z400E sold well to take third position ahead of Yamaha’s WR250F. KTM took fifth and sixth spots in the enduro sector with their 525 and 450 EXC machines.

The cruiser category experienced great growth and Harley-Davidson rode the boom the best with six of the top ten selling models powered by the American icon. Honda’s long running VT750C took second overall behind Harley’s Softail while Yamaha’s XVS650 sold well to take third spot in the segment. None of the larger capacity cruiser offerings from Japan or Europe managed a top ten position.

The Sports-Touring category continued to be dominated by the bargain priced CBR1100XX Super Blackbird Honda which was no great surprise but Suzuki taking second spot with the GS500F was certainly a bolt from the blue.

While Yamaha didn’t fare as well as it would have hoped in the Sports-Touring figures they did score number one in the dedicated tourer category with the FJR1300. BMW took second place with the R 1200 RT while Honda took third and fourth with the ST1300 and GL1800 Gold Wing.
Below is the full breakdown of manufacturer results and category top ten breakdowns for the 2006 calendar year.

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TRIUMPH ROCKET III ( Latin: Holius Craptor)

Triumph took 7th place. THIS is getting good...........

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TRIUMPH ROCKET III ( Latin: Holius Craptor)