By the end of 2025, the UK new motorcycle market was not merely soft but structurally constrained. Registrations were down more than 15% year on year. A weak November showed that demand failed to recover as the year progressed.
Adventure bikes remained the largest category, but only in relative terms. Volumes were down, just less so than elsewhere. Naked bikes, modern classics, road sport and touring machines all fell sharply, with modern classics declining despite heavy manufacturer focus. Capacity trends reinforce the same message: the steepest falls were at the top end. Litre-plus machines are in clear retreat, while 750–1000cc bikes show relative resilience, suggesting trading down rather than confidence, but equally potentially signalling the need for lighter bikes as riders age, and also hinting at manufacturer financial support.
This market activity aligns closely with broader household finance data. UK consumer confidence remains negative and real household spending growth through 2025 has been marginal. Crucially, belt-tightening is not confined to lower-income groups. The upper-middle, suburban, professional demographic that has historically underpinned new premium motorcycle sales is becoming more selective. These households still have disposable income, but big discretionary purchases face higher internal justification thresholds, with priority given to savings, debt reduction and long-term security.
Finance has thus become central to the functioning of the new bike market. PCP and similar products allow expensive motorcycles, particularly adventure bikes, to remain accessible by masking true cost behind monthly payments. What looks like demand is often tolerance for a payment rather than acceptance of price. This new bike sales model is fragile in a climate of elevated interest rates and subdued confidence.
Set against this is the longer-term outlook for motorcycling as a hobby. The average full licence holder is now in their mid-50s, and the pipeline of younger riders remains weak. Rising costs, insurance, and regulatory complexity reinforce a gradual shift toward smaller, more affordable machines. The same trend is visible in new bike registrations and in classics. Participation is likely to shrink, not disappear, with motorcycling becoming more niche and enthusiast-driven.
That does not mean collapse. Passion, community and events remain strong, and the market is adapting with affordable mid-capacity bikes and pragmatic designs. But scale matters. Into 2026, the new bike market looks increasingly dependent on finance mechanics and a smaller, ageing customer base, while growth is driven by the affordable end. The risk is stagnation: fewer buyers, slower turnover, and heightened sensitivity to economic mood, even among those who can afford to buy.
One of the most interesting shifts in UK motorcycling over the past ten to fifteen years has been the steady rise of older women entering the world of two wheels. This is not driven by trend, rebellion, or novelty. It is a mid-life entry, not a teenage phase.
Data from UK motorcycle test pass records shows a clear pattern of rising female participation among women in their forties, fifties, and beyond. This is a deliberate choice made later in life, not a continuation of something started in youth.
That matters because motivations at this stage of life are very different. These riders are not looking for an identity. They already have one. They are not chasing approval, status, or edge. They are choosing motorcycling because it fits who they already are, or who they are becoming.
For many women, motorcycling represents sovereignty: the embodied experience of choosing direction, speed, and distance without negotiation: agentic movement without permission.
Cars insulate. Motorcycles engage. And for women who have spent years prioritising others, that engagement can feel radical. Motorcycling rewards attention, anticipation, and judgement: qualities that tend to deepen with age rather than diminish.
Older female riders often approach riding seriously and thoughtfully. They train properly. They prepare. They respect the machine. As a result, confidence develops from competence rather than performance. It is internal, grounded, and unshowy.
This is why many older women riders are entirely uninterested in proving anything. The satisfaction comes from mastery, not display.
There is also an aesthetic dimension that should not be underestimated. Motorcycles are objects with presence. They have form, sound, texture, and ritual. Clothing, kit, and machines become extensions of self, rather than costumes.
For women with a strong sense of style, riding offers a rare combination of function and expression. The look is about coherence: alignment with what you are doing, and how you appear while doing it. This may matter more with age.
Again and again, women describe riding as marking a line in their life. After children. After divorce. After caregiving. After years of responsibility that ran in only one direction. Motorcycling does not erase those chapters: it creates a new one that belongs entirely to the rider. It is not framed around service, support, or sacrifice. It is something chosen purely because it brings pleasure, focus, and a sense of being fully alive.
Motorcycling communities tend to be refreshingly flat. Respect is earned through behaviour, awareness, and how you show up, not age, background, or past roles. For older women, this can be unexpectedly liberating. One is not defined by the past, but solely by how one rides and carries onself now.
The rise of older women riders does not numerically replace the decline in younger male participation. But it does change the character of the market. These riders buy thoughtfully. They value quality. They insure properly. They keep bikes longer. They gravitate towards machines that offer experience rather than excess.
This is not a fad or a marketing segment. It is a quiet re-centering of what riding can mean when it is chosen freely, later in life, by people who already know who they are. In many ways, it may be one of the healthiest developments motorcycling has seen in a generation, if not its entire history.
As Honda’s biggest CBR from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, the Honda CBR 1000F built a reputation as a solid but somewhat bland sports tourer, praised mostly for its long-distance ability and comfortable riding position. With a 140bhp engine fed by a 22-litre fuel tank in a package weighing c.270 kgs wet, the CBR was not lightweight, but it excelled in its design brief: to cross countries at speed and in comfort.
The engine was fitted with a balancer shaft to soften vibration and a rear-mounted alternator to reduce width. Often referred to as the Hurricane by US enthusiasts, the CBR 1000F was a sales success. UK buyers took to the model and the bike is a regular offering on eBay and Bike Trader.
Other than an upgrade to the cam chain assembly, which proved troublesome on early models, and a switch to slightly bigger wheels, the technical evolution was relatively static throughout the life of the model and later versions now look a little obsolete versus later CBR1000 RR ‘Fireblade’ model. In fact, the introduction of the original Fireblade c.1992 cannibalised sales from the CBR1000F and eventually led to the end of CBR 1000F production in 1997.
“The sports-touring Honda CBR1000F was always in the shadow of more exciting motorcycles, yet had a decade long production run. It had its good points, such as a comfortable riding position, good build quality – except for early camchain tensioner problems – and respectable handling. But the Honda CBR1000F is so bland it makes Katie Melua look like a brazen rock chick.”
Howmanyleft suggests that 131 CBR1000F-L models were taxed at the end of Q3 2021, with 439 listed as SORN. Some 380 bikes with the L model year code were registered in 1990, with 162 registered in 1991 and 22 in 1992.
A survey on lessons in probate best practice by the Financial Times in mid-2020 revealed some interesting information, which those handling probate asset valuations (including classic motorcycles) should keep firmly in mind when the duty as executor is required.
Maintaining up-to-date records
Perhaps the most important point was to ensure that, when one agrees to be an executor, one should keep up to date with the person who has nominated you to ensure that their will and other key documents – any shareholdings, property deeds, insurance details and all of their bank statements and information on other assets – are readily available in a file for when the worst happens, and that you as their executor are aware of their intentions.
Keeping executors in the loop regarding all financial affairs and changes to documents including the will is an important part of the process but, executors should also make time for their nominees! A friend recalls how his mother pleaded with him to sit and discuss her will for two or more years before she died. He put her off until it was too late, only to find that she had cut his two sisters out of their inheritance. Sorting that out between siblings after the reasons for the decision have died is never going to be pleasant. Knowing that his mother felt that she had to make such a decision was not easy for him, either.
Source Accurate and Reliable Asset Valuations
The survey emphasised the importance of reliable asset valuations, especially in estates worth more than the £325,000 individual inheritance tax threshold. One reader advised that, in their experience, the district valuer may be called in to verify information submitted if it was felt to be unreliable.
The most important thing to remember about a probate valuation is that it should be calculated as a selling price on the day of death. Having the experience to see past asking prices and inflated dealer opinion to know the market trends, adjust the asset value for history and condition and to create a report that HMRC can rely on as accurate and complete is the purpose of my classic and vintage motorcycle probate valuation service. This is particularly true of rare and very vintage motorcycles, where observation data is hard to come by.
Be Aware of Probate Delays
HMRC insists that any inheritance tax owed should be paid by the end of the sixth month after death. However, grant of probate may take up to eight weeks to arrive, so much of the time available will be eaten up by the waiting period.
This makes it even more important to have access to as many documents as possible from the start. Up to seven years of bank statements may be required to check for money given as gifts – or any other gifts dispersed. One man who received a £450,000 cash gift through an offshore account ended up being fined £87,000 in court (via an anonymous tip-off) and came to regret the decision not to advise his father’s executors of the transaction. The executors were not prosecuted but the risk is there.
Solicitors versus Chartered Accountants
Solicitors were given a hard time by some respondents, with many recommendations to use Chartered Accountants in their place. A personal experience with a local probate solicitor was not great and, while that might have been an exceptional case, the process of engaging an accountant rather than a solicitor to assist with probate generated more positive feedback due to lower fees and quicker turnarounds.
In 2004, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman circumnavigated the globe on a pair of BMW R1150 GS Adventure motorcycles. There were actually three bikes: the third was ridden by a cameraman. Starting in London, they rode across Western and Central Europe then on to Ukraine, Western Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia and Canada, over a cumulative distance of almost 19,000 miles.
The ride was featured in a TV series called Long Way Round. This was shown on Sky and the BBC before being released to two DVD boxed sets including a special edition boxed set for the trip’s anniversary. The adventure increased the awareness of two-wheel globetrotting many times over and inspired countless motorcycle riders to take off around the world on their own two-wheeled adventures.
McGregor wanted to do the trip on BMW motorcycles, while Boorman preferred the specialist off-road and adventure bikes made by KTM. After off-road tests on KTM and BMW machines, McGregor agreed to go for KTMs, but KTM ultimately declined to provide them with promotional bikes out of concern that the team might fail. This turned out to be a bad decision.
BMW then contributed three BMW R1150GS all-terrain motorcycles, which were modified to help the team achieve and document their mission. They were also equipped with cameras, microphones and display/viewfinder screens mounted on the dashboards. A customised GPS with specially mapped waypoints in Mongolia and Siberia was crucial in areas with no roads or signposts.
BMW also supplied GS motorcycles for the second ride: Long Way Down. The R1200 GS Adventures were kitted out in a similar way. All four bikes are still owned by BMW and have been exhibited many times.
Having owned two very similar GSs – a later twin spark 2005 BMW 1150 GS Adventure and 2007 R1200 GS – to the base models used by Boorman and McGregor, I can testify to great build quality on both. When it comes to used bike prices and residual values, decent build quality gives the bikes an inherent price advantage over lesser bikes from the same market niche.
When one also factors in the higher cost new of BMW motorcycles and consumer perceptions of enhanced badge value, the combined effect on used prices can be significant. While one would probably not claim that McGregor and Boorman’s adventure rides alone have helped preserve strong brand values for GS motorcycles, the effect of the shows on the profile for these bikes and the clear demonstration of their ability to tackle adventures of this scale with few modifications was undeniably positive for used prices.
Anyone who has looked into buying a BMW R1150 GS Adventure knows just how well these bikes hold their money. Mine has not dropped a penny in the four years I have owned it, and this is despite a total production for BMW R1150 GS and GS Adventure models of over 75,000 bikes. This level of supply is usually a killer for residual values for such a niche motorcycle, so the McGregor Effect should not be underestimated.
Ewan McGregor rides electric Harley Davidson
Now McGregor and Boorman are back on two wheels, riding 13,000 miles through South and Central America, en route to Los Angeles. This time, the pair are on electric Harley Davidson motorcycles, so the challenge has been ramped up a bit, both in choosing bikes that seem to be ill-suited to adventure riding and swapping the IC drivetrain to run with electric power instead. The trailer for the series (below) shows all the points would one would expect – range anxiety, dependence on AC infrastructure in less developed countries, weight and style of bike and so on. This all increases the watchability of the ride and, done properly, rubs off well for all those brands who contribute to the adventure.
On the face of it, Harley Davidson is a brand that has not been doing so well in recent years. The parent company is going through a change of direction which has not been greeted with open arms by the traditional Harley Davidson buyer, but then the redirection is focused on finding new buyers and new HD riders. Sending HDs from the tip of South America with a film star and his hooligan mate is a good way to push that idea of “new Harley”.
It wasn’t without its challenges, McGregor admits: “The biggest challenge was charging the bikes. Where do you plug that bike into when you’re in the middle of the Bolivian desert or the Atacama Desert or in Patagonia? There are very few places to do that.
“There’s also a sort of stigma in the bike world; you hear the word hairdryer used in relation to electric motorcycles. But once you’ve ridden one, that all goes away. They’re so fast, they’re noiseless, you really feel the road. It’s a different experience and it’s really cool.”
Harley Davidson electric motorcycle costs
Bennett’s bike channel summed up the issue of prices for electric Harley Davidsons in a recent review of the Harley Davidson Livewire model. “A Harley-Davidson Livewire is going to cost you £28,995 plus on-the-road costs. That’s £10,505 more than Zero’s new SR/F, and roughly £9,000 more than Energica’s Esse Esse 9. £28,995 is enough to buy Ducati Panigale V4 S and a Honda Monkey 125, with a thousand quid in change left over to blow on a 65” 4k Smart TV.
“Of course, it was always going to be wallet unfriendly. The intended audience is presumed to have money and be happy to pay a premium, and, as a sector, EVs are still very much in the early-adopter phase (especially in motorcycling). Harley-Davidson no doubt has an aggressive plan to claw back its investment in EV, and will be ploughing that cash back into new models and continuing R&D. The Livewire is just the first in a long series.”
So here we have a £30k bike at the front of the electric motorcycle revolution that is £10k dearer than similar bikes, runs an Italian rather than a US electric motor and is being sold by a company in fairly dire financial straits. You may think that HD is betting quite a lot on the sales figures of these electric machines and you would probably be right. However, while the technology of the bikes will be outdated in two to three years, the presence of McGregor and Boorman in the marketing material is a plus. Assuming the bikes do well, overcoming the worries on range and riding experience amongst the fairly inert biking fraternity will be another plus.
Though we cannot currently compare pre- and post- McGregor residual values for electric Harley Davidson motorcycles, previous experience with big GS models which sold like proverbial hotcakes after riding around the world with Ewan McGregor in the saddle could be a big feather in the cap for sales figures. Volume sales are not the best protection for residual values, but it is a way for manufactirers to sell more bikes and make more margin and develop more new bikes with more affordable prices.
Ultimately, the market will decide where the prices for used electric motorcycles end up, but sticking them on TV for several weeks ahead of the release of a big selling box set may prove to have been a very canny move by the Harley-Davidson marketing team.
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