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An international forum for people interested in modern high performance road going sidecars.
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Paul
Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 182 Location: Utah
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Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:58 pm Post subject: Sidecars as % of market |
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Ever wonder what size the market for sidecars is? News from the UK (where you've got to figure sidecars are more popular than here):
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2006 UK SALES STATS
09 January 2007
The figures for UK new motorcycle registrations during 2006 are in, and they show a mainly static new bike market across the British Isles. 109,527 new bikes and scooters above 50cc were registered last year, up just 1% from 2005.
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Unspecified class bikes, which may or may not include Quads, Sidecars, Trikes and Classics ( the MCI don't say ) rose by 78%, but still accounted for just 1506 units in total.
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So that's 1506 out of 109,527 "other", or 1% of the market for non-two-wheeled motorcycles. In comparison, one single BMW model - the R1200GS - sold 1468 bikes. |
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Dar
Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 349 Location: Ballston Spa, NY
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Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:43 am Post subject: |
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And what portion of that 1% (in the UK) or whatever the percentage might be here in the US, might be considered "high performance" rigs? Judging from the size of this forum, compared to other "sidecars in general" forums, not a very large portion, I would guess.
Refering to the Misconceptions thread, no wonder people think we're a bit peculiar, strange or even tending toward the "poof".
And having met some of you in person...
All I can say is that I felt very welcome and right at home in the gang at Maggie Valley last summer.
Of course, people have been calling me weird for most of my life anyway, long before I even thought of getting into sidecars. |
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sidecarkeith
Joined: 06 Jan 2007 Posts: 336 Location: yorkshire uk
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Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 10:07 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
Thought I'd just pop in,
Speaking as a sidecarist in the UK and this is my personal view no club statement.
The reason sidecars are so few are several reasons.
1st the whole of the UK could fit inside California with room to shimmy in, so really you compare the UK numbers with just one State's numbers not the entire USA
2nd The financial state of the UK, at one time when a young working class/blue collar man got married and had children they tended to buy sidecars to transport the family around cars where too expensive.
Nowadays cars are cheaper than HPS so the trend today is sell the bike and buy a car.
3rd Sidecars last longer than most bikes, sidecarist tend to be people who enjoy doing DIY, so they tend to replace parts themselves to keep the sidecar running. I'd like to know the number of sidecars in that stat that are over 30 years old, bet you find it would be a large percentage.
4th The problem is the motorcycle media (as in your misconception topic) we get get exactly the same comments over here, whilst the media still think sidecars are 1936 Nortons with rigged front forks and a double adult Cantabury style sidecars bolted on.
5th and lastly, Over here the rescent trend is a lot of middle aged men who had been out of biking for years, now have children grow up and flown the nest. These are the ones buying big powerfull bikes to run around on one summer and the next summer they have bought another new bike, pushing the solo sales figures up.
hope you find this of some use into why sidecars in the UK are so low.
Keith |
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