Spring is still taking its time and amazes with almost autumnal capers. This also has an impact on an industry that depends more than others on good weather: that of motorized two-wheelers. Spring is the time when shops are usually buzzing and sales rise. This is also the case this year – but the motorcycle market started out of a deep hole. The interest group of the German motorcycle industry (IVM) determined a decrease of 50 percent for January 2021 compared to the previous year. In February, 15.75 percent fewer motorcycles were sold than in the previous year. Business only picked up in March. The industry was happy about an increase of 8.21 percent. April then brought the breakthrough – 23,300 machines were sold in Germany, an increase of 33 percent.
The two-wheeler business is complicated in this time of the corona pandemic. “Between October and February the motorcycle trade is usually at a low,” says Marcus Ackerstaff, who runs the Speed Center in Kelkheim and sells two-wheelers from Suzuki, Piaggio Vespa and Peugeot. When the first lockdown was imposed in March of last year, the motorcycle industry also shivered, but recovered in the summer months. Ackerstaff sold around 30 percent fewer machines this year than at the same time last year. “A big problem is that the suppliers have difficulties,” says Ackerstaff. The currently long delivery times affect new vehicles and spare parts equally.