The upturn in the UK motorbike market is showing no signs of abating as we head into the second half of the year.
The year got off to a good start with strong early sales but, unlike previous years, new motorbike registrations have continued to perform strongly.
As June was coming to a close, the UK new motorbike market, including 125s, was up 15.3% on the same period of last year with a total of 49,434 registrations.
Take 125s out of the equation and it was still 10.9% ahead of 2025 with 30,094 registrations.
The big winner is Kawasaki with new bike sales, including 125s, 31.5% up on the first half of 2025.
Take out 125s and its registrations were still 26.5% ahead driven by a campaign of attractive offers and pricing.
That performance is enough to give Kawasaki a 9.2% market share, behind Triumph (14.6%), Honda (13.8%) and BMW (13%), but now ahead of Yamaha (7.9%).
Our other franchises are also doing well. Royal Enfield has a 5.6% market share just ahead of KTM (5.1%) while Suzuki is on a par with Ducati at 4.4%. CFMOTO is picking up nicely with 2.3% of the market.
Dave Willis said 2025 had been tough for the motorbike industry in the UK.
“Last year was a difficult year but it has been very encouraging that the market has recovered and is going from strength to strength.
“We’re very encouraged by registrations and the monthly upturns have been sustained.
“KTM is doing much better because of the lower-cost mid-range motorbikes that are in vogue at the moment. Its larger models are now more desirable because they are more scarce. The 990 RC R has gone down very well.
“We’re also selling a lot of Suzukis and are slightly up on last year, with the new DR-Z4S and further GSX-8 family models, and the range has benefitted from price cuts.”
Royal Enfield is holding its own while CFMOTO sales are seeing it close to breaking into the top 10 motorbike brands in the UK.
CFMOTO’s next boost will be the arrival of the new 1000MT-X adventure tourer, which has had favourable reviews in the motorbike press, and we’ve already taken several orders.
