As the new motorcycle season approaches, some of us start looking at new bikes. It’s only natural to wonder which kinds of machine and model may prove the most popular in the coming year.
And for 2025, more than at any time in recent memory, there are plenty of reasons to suggest that this may be ‘The year of the sensible and more affordable motorcycle’ and that the days of dominance of high performance, high specification, high capacity and high-tech adventure bikes, which have long been the best-selling bikes in Britain, is over.
But before you start worrying that what we’re instead suggesting may be all boring and budget, think again. We could be in for a new ‘golden era’ of fun, accessible, simpler and more affordable machines – and wasn’t that what motorcycling was all about in the first place?
Consider the evidence: first, one of the standout sales statistics of 2024 was the huge success of Triumph’s first ‘small’ bike, its new 400cc single cylinder duo, the Speed 400 and Scrambler 400X. The cheaper, £5195 Speed 400 was the better seller – just – but considered together the affordable, characterful, relatively simple and fun 40bhp machine was far and away Britain’s best-selling bike of 2024.
Nor was it the only one. Royal Enfield’s new 450 Himalayan, from £5750, also proved a huge hit, proving to many that a versatile adventure bike didn’t need to be 1200cc and £20k+. The same firm’s Meteor and HNTR 350s and 411 Scram also proved popular. While for 2025 a new tranche of affordable sub-400s, highlighted by Honda’s new £3949 GB350S and Suzuki’s DR-Z4 are almost certain to be big sellers too.
Second, there were already signs that the era of dominance of big adventure motorcycles may be coming to an end. Make no mistake: they’re still popular and excellent machines, and will remain so. But BMW’s decade long best-selling R/GS has, with the latest 1300 version, possibly not proven quite as popular as expected.
For evidence look at the new R 1300 GS Adventure, whose looks have proved slightly controversial. After its launch in October, it actually prompted a surge in sales for remaining stock of the outgoing model, the R 1250 GSA, causing a spike in December sales.
Again, it’s not the only one: Ducati’s new 2025 Multistrada V4, while admittedly brilliant, has also drawn criticism for a price now well over £20,000; Harley’s Pan America is proving a hard sell while even Triumph’s 1200 Tiger is often subject to big dealer discounts, a sure fire sign they’re not shifting in the numbers envisaged by the manufacturers.
Part of the reason for any decline in popularity of big adventure bikes may be the rise of more affordable ‘mid-capacity’ ones, which have become so good in recent years. Yamaha kickstarted the middleweight adventure category with its MT-07 derived Ténéré 700 in 2019, a bike which could do most things a 1000cc+ adventure bike could do (and was even better off-road) for under 10 grand.
That bike’s success has spawned not only a whole family of Ténérés but also a host of imitators such as Honda’s 750 Transalp and Suzuki’s V-Strom 800. There is also, increasingly, some great affordable, middleweight adventures arriving from China. Voge’s highly specced DSX900 does virtually everything bigger versions can do, again for under £10k and has, as a result, become a Europe-wide best seller.
And, finally, and perhaps most tellingly of all, these new breeds of bike – cheap 400s, more affordable middleweight adventures – are arriving at a time when not only is the average age of riders getting older (so perhaps increasing the appeal of lighter, more manageable machines) but one when riders’ disposable income is getting smaller. In the current economic climate it's hard to justify the outlay on an expensive motorbike.
One of the surprising features of the success of Triumph’s new 400s has not just been its popularity, but in the fact that many buyers are actually trading in their bigger, less manageable, more expensive Tiger 900s or 1200s for it, and trading ‘down’ the 400. For 2025, the traditional Tigers have another rival from within the family, with the new Tiger Sport 800 proving that a road focussed adventure bike doesn’t need to have 180bhp and a £20k price tag to win the hearts and minds of the bike buying public.
We’re also keeping our eye on the new Honda Hornet 1000, a 150bhp in-line four with a price tag significantly less than middleweights like the Yamaha MT-09. We think they’ll be flying out of the showrooms, and making plenty of people think twice about dropping 50% more on a European supernaked.
It’s worth repeating here, though, that this ‘trend’ isn’t necessarily a bad one (although it probably has contributed to the difficulties facing some dealers at present, as smaller, cheaper bikes deliver smaller profit margins). Overall bike sales are pretty static – it’s just the type of bikes we’re buying that is changing. And if we’re now choosing more sensible, affordable bikes, as long as we enjoy them, by definition, we’re all better off.
