Southampton ('Dockgate 20') and Plymouth, the latest casualties.
Many bike dealerships are closing their doors, these two both citing the increased burden of NI as the final straw that broke a marginally profitable business's back.

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'98 M2 Razorback, it's a keeper.

That's a shame
First of many to come I fear

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I hate being strapped for cash....but it pays the bills

JW Groombridge recently closed near me.

I used to go there on my moped (at 16, I'm 67 now!)

Good news though, a new Ducati dealership is opening near Hailsham, just a couple of miles from the Harley dealer Sykes.

sadly writings has been on the wall for years , as no new young blood to replace us old ones , sales figures have been getting lower and lower as the years go by .
youth of today more inclined to be using an E scooter rather than a moped.

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Buell Ulysses XB12X 06/08

Older bike prices have dropped at auction , bikes Ive sold have been 40% less than a few years ago . Deceased sales are the norm now with collections being sold off for whatever they reach. Italian stuff plummeted, class British held up a bit, Jap stuff has to be mint to be a deal.
Agree that "Kids" don`t give a look at it all.

A lot of doom and gloom in the motorcycle trade at present. Not sure what is going on in the Harley-Davidson world but they seem to be trying to attract new audiences and failing and in the meantime alienating some of their existing customer base. Their prices seem to be continually rising and they don't have reasonably priced entry level machines like we had in my day. It's ten years now since I left Black Bear. Lind who took us over have recently closed their H-D dealerships in Norwich, Reading and Watford. The Watford site still has the adjoining Triumph dealership and they are replacing H-D with Ducati. Newmarket is still an H-D dealership but they are also taking on Yamaha as has Sycamore H-D in Uppingham.

Southampton and Plymouth who were part of the Marsh group went in to administration yesterday along with their sister dealerships with both Triumph and Yamaha in Plymouth. They blamed pressure from manufacturers to hold large stocks along with financial pressures post-Covid and those inflicted on businesses by the recent budget. As well as JW Groombridge both Pidcocks in Nottingham and Saltire in Scotland have gone recently as well as a large chain of dealerships Completely Motorcycles who seemed to have over stretched themselves in acquiring a large number of smaller dealerships.

On the plus side the Ducati dealership mentioned by Just John is being opened by Sykes Harley-Davidson who also have big expansion plans and seem to be doing the right things in attracting new customers as well as serving their existing customers well.

I've been picking my pension up for a couple of years now but still work part time as a salesman for Greenham Kawasaki in Newbury. I like to think we do things the right way and still generate a lot of business including sales to younger riders which I find quite heartening. We were Kawasaki's top dealer this year for both number of sales and customer satisfaction. We are however in quite a unique situation. We are owned by Kawasaki and, although we don't get any preferential treatment we are fortunate to have a good relationship with KMUK staff and don't carry the burden of stocking charges which other dealers face.

Interesting what Topgumm has to say about auctions. I did some work a couple of years ago for Silverstone Auctions who have now changed their name to Iconic. They had a really successful auction at the NEC recently with record takings although I haven't studied the individual prices. One sale was to a mate of mine - a low mileage, fairly original White Lightning for £5940 including buyer's fee. Probably would have made more a couple of years ago but not bad in the current climate.

It doesn't seem to be just the motorcycle trade suffering at present, I'm hearing similar tales from the motor trade. Hold on tight, folks, we seem to be in for a bumpy ride!

Steve

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Back on the road again!