Motorcycle industry Q1: Soft all over, with a firm adventurous middle

…Middleweight ADV bikes really are hot

Among adventure-touring bikes, it has seemed like most of the action in recent years has happened in the middleweight segment. The Aprilia Tuareg, the Yamaha Ténéré 700, and the Honda Transalp are just a few examples of excellent middleweights that have drawn new attention to the class. The stats back up that impression.

The MIC breaks down the adventure class into three displacement categories, and the 601-900 cc class is where the growth is happening, with sales up 13.1%. Meanwhile, sales were down 16.4% in the over 900 cc class and down 32.7% in the much smaller 600 cc and under class. Consumers really are migrating from the big adventure-touring motorcycles to the new middleweight entries that are lighter, less expensive, and still very versatile and capable. Sounds like a smart move to me.

U.S. motorcycle sales, which grew little in the decade between the financial crisis and COVID-19, and were then turned upside down by the disruptions of the pandemic, now appear to be returning to the stagnation and patterns we experienced before.

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