THE number of new motorbikes registered in Victoria has leapt 24.5 per cent in the past five years but Swan Hill region retailers say the only boom has been in a new breed of four-wheelers.
Swan Hill Suzuki sales manager Luke Carrison said All Terrain Vehicles (ATV’s) were their main seller, and overall there had been a modest rise in sales, but not by 25 per cent.
“They haven’t been up or down, it’s about equal,” he said.
Mr Carrison said he suspected cheaper models, often imported from China, were driving the spike in registrations in metropolitan areas.
The Swan Hill dealership sells up to 100 motorbikes per year, mostly for farming purposes, and like most local retailers, rainfall affecting growing conditions is the major factor on sales.
But a new, booming section of the market is Side by Side Vehicles (SSV’s) — a two-passenger ATV with roll cage — after widespread media coverage of ATV rollovers, often resulting in death.
“In the last 12 months we’ve sold almost as many , if not equal, to ATV’s,” Mr Carrison said.
While the rise of SSV’s could be attributed mostly to concern about ATV accidents, Mr Carrison said any crackdown from government to ban ATVs was unlikely in the foreseeable future.
“It has been in the media every week for the last five years… certainly it’s closer in buyers’ minds when upgrading or getting an ATV.”
Australian Bureau of Statistics research into the average age of motorbikes has also shown a slight increase over the five-year period, from 9 to 9.5 years old.
For more of this story see Friday’s Guardian (July 26).
