A great set of numbers

A record 25,512 bikes were sold in the first quarter of this year, up nearly 20 per cent on the same time last year.

Sales of road bikes are up by 28.6 per cent to 11,165, almost half of the total, but it's not the latest high-performance machines that are making the cash registers ring.

Yamaha's YZF-R1 superbike just made it into the top 10 with 254 sales. The main players in the road resurgence were cruisers (up 19.4 per cent) and scooters (up 47.3 per cent).

The best-selling road bike was the Jive Bug scooter (270 sales) and the top cruiser was Harley-Davidson's FXST Softail (191).

"This is a continuation of a trend that has emerged in the past two years, driven by middle-aged riders returning to two wheels and a whole new segment of customers attracted to scooters," Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Peter Sturrock says.

"The scooter scene is starting to build real momentum as the appeal of simple, easy-to-park, low-cost transport becomes more widely known in Australia," Sturrock says.

According to the FCAI, it is the first time in many years that sales of road bikes have exceeded those of dirt bikes, though the off-road brigade still dominates the top 10.

Yamaha's YZ250F and YZ450F flanked Honda's CT110X "postie" bike on the podium as moto-

crossers homed in on the new alloy-framed models. The two Yamahas were up 61.8 per cent and 151.8 per cent respectively on the same period last year.

But the CT110X, the traditional market leader, was down 27.3 per cent awaiting the next round of fleet turnovers at Australia Post.

In the battle of the brands, Honda is leading the year-to-date figures with 6024 (up 6 per cent), followed by Yamaha (5532), Suzuki (2938), Kawasaki (2112) and KTM (1541).

"We have had a very successful first quarter," Honda motorcycles general manager Tony Hinton says.

"Our off-road bike share of the market is holding nicely and we're very happy with the strong result of the new CRF450X (enduro bike)."

Yamaha's "boys in blue" claimed victory in the motocross, offroad and funbike categories, and the electric-start TTR230, launched last year, is starting to catch Honda's CRF230F in the trail section.

Yamaha director/general manager Steven Cotterell says: "Across all products Yamaha has posted a 12.9 per cent increase in the first quarter of 2006. When you consider how many units Yamaha sells, this is an awesome achievement."