The Death of Motorbikes in the UK (Major Dealers shutting up shop)
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- Опубліковано 12 жов 2024
- Pezza & Tezza on the way to pick up a Project Bike
as i have been busy with things i have not had a chance to make a video so thought i would give this style of video a try.
so its me and Tezza talking about the death of motorbikes in the uk and how that in the last few months quite a few motorbike dealers have closed and some have been around for over 40 years!
seeing the shops shutdown is very upsetting but understandable with less and less people getting into bikeing every year.
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I feel like I've let the side down by hanging up my helmet this year after 30 years of biking. The key reason for me was the dangerous state of the roads I used, & the drop in driving standards/increased car traffic. I just wasn't enjoying the ride anymore & it was more of a survival test.
People arent getting into biking as much nowadays also because of the stupid structure of how to obtain your licence more than the costs of bikes for sure
Yeah it's alot of hoops to jump through and also alot of young people only passed a A2 so restricted to 47bhp
@@BigPezza 47hp doesn't give you much bragging rights down the pub. And also it's pretty slow compared to a lot of cars now.
Erm 😅😅 don't look at my other videos most of them this year I was on a bike with 7bhp and top speed of 37mph
@@BigPezza sounds like an aprilia sx50 rx50
@@chrishart8548 Not so. My Yamaha 321 cc MT-03 is good for over 100 MPH and has a 0-60 of 5.1 seconds. So, no slouch for a small capacity bike. Perfect for me at the age of 88. Best doing a bit of homework before making silly comments......
Motorcycles are a luxury item - the UK is heading for ever deepening austerity - hence the collapse in sales.
Yes they are. I was paying over £500 a year just to to keep it on the road. It was quite a lot for a weekend bike with a possiblity of commuting to work.
I was also maintaining it properly at the dealer , that was not cheap also.
Once it was stolen, I gave up on buying another one. £500 for 700 miles a year does not make any senses. Now when we go on holidays we just rent a big scooter - way better , way cheaper and it's nicer than cruising around the house.
My machine is not any kind of luxury item at all, it's a major part of my daily life, and my sole means of transport (I could never justify the running and maintenance costs of a car)
@@davedthomas01 Some bikes are now more costly than cars. My NC750x rear wheel + chain + oil = £800 . The wheel itself was 150 + labour.
@@davedthomas01you and me both c👍🇬🇧
I think that it is the way of the world, my son buys his cars of the internet, research what he wants or specs it up of a website, pays his money and it turns up in a car transporter job done, no dealer visits all done on a computer. I think that the whole world has changed, how many pubs have shut down ? Loads of them. I am 65 years old bought my first bike when I was 11 from my paper round anther dead job that long gone, but nowadays I just run around on my old classic bikes, buy all my spares from the internet from all over the world and wait for the courier service to deliver them, no postman another sign of the times.Good video really enjoyed it.
The prices of new bikes are killing it, the second hand market is still going strong , I bought a few new bikes over the years and I remember back in 2011 paying just under 14k for a high spec bmw s1000rr , now if I wanted to buy one it's 20 odd thousand !! I bought a new 23 desert x and the build quality compared to a old honda xr650r I got that is 24 years old is comical, greed will kill the industry as newer riders can't afford these newer bikes so they opting for older bikes imo. The hoops the new riders have to jump through to get a licence is also stopping people getting bikes...
I think the max I have ever paid for a bike is 4k
its been happening slowly for the last 40 years . and its not just dealers . loads of small back street bike shops that just did repairs have gone completely .used to do it myself ,but shed loads of regulations came into forse and closed most down .
yeah like most things goverment red tape everywhere
You know what's more dangerous than riding a motorbike? A regular road bicycle.
You're even more vulnerable to knobheads, AND you don't have the power to get away (or even just keep up with traffic most of the time).
I don't see anyone going around telling kids that riding their bikes to school is "too dangerous" 🤔
Bennetts is doing Superbike factory a big fav by doing the 'what bike next' videos there, they are not a motorcycle shop, just a flog anything finance shop.
Looks like Jay from the Inbetweeners is doing a spot of Vlogging 😂😂😂
Vlogging. completed it mate 😁
The next generation of motorcyclists are being killed off by high insurance costs.
My son is 23 yrs old and has 5 years no claims discount for a car as well as having a pilots licence and was quoted £2300.00 for a 125cc bike.
By comparison he owns a glider and his annual insurance costs is £585.00.
Good chat fella's. I am sooooo old that I brought my first bike in 1967. What my grandson and son in law had to do to get a motorbike licence is unbelievable. All I had to do to get a full licence was ride around the block and do an emergency stop. How have as motorcyclists allowed this to happen ! Its killed our industry. The sound was a bit off at times so apologies if you did mention it but did you know Sykes are opening a Ducati agency. Owned a couple of Harleys but neither suited me and dare I say it now ride a GS, gravel car park is my limit though 😂😉.That said many of my mates ride Harleys and even if you don't Sykes make you feel welcome if you call in on a Saturday for a free coffee.
i think i know someone who works there i keep meaning to swing by that place and have a look
The law needs changing , a bike cbt should be compulsory before any driving lessons can be done . This would attract more people to ride scooters and eventually motorbikes .
Yes, especially as a good 125 does three times the MPG of a small car, let alone a big or old car. More of those on the road means fewer solo car journeys. Sadly, they'll never replace a family car for transporting a family.
That would be nice but I don't think the government is going to cater to the 1%
Although dealers are a big part of Motorcycling there are still only a part. There are more than enough bikes already in private hands to keep Bikers entertainerd for decades. Sure keeping them going will be a little harder but far from impossable.
I think you guys hit the nail on the head, for years now the main motorcycle manufacturers have been producing expensive toys and catering to the older generation who are now sadly fazing out of the motorcycle buying group instead of producing cheap reliable sensible transport that the normal working man can afford?
the only cheap bikes out there are the big bikes that people who have a full bike lience can ride
@@BigPezza I agree you can buy 100+bhp bikes for less than a lot of 125cc bikes. There is just such little competition from buyers when buying higher power bikes.
My vfr750 was 1k with spare parts and valid MOT 😱 all I did was a minor service and it was off on a trip round Scotland
So on MCN reviews, most of the long term reviews feature 100 BHP bikes whether roadsters or adventure bikes. Even 750 cc bikes with 90 bhp are described as middleweight. The motorcycle industry is writing its own death certificate. A 150 kg bike with modest 40 bhp just doesn't cut it with most people.
I think people want too much of everything, whether it's bhp, food, holidays etc. Just unsustainable and then complain thins are too expensive
I can’t believe Grabber Groombridge is gone!
He was an institution and could sell anybody anything, always over 600 new and used machines in stock
Sadly after he passed away the shop got worse and worse and in recent years the staff could never be bothered to look up from their laptops to acknowledge customers
Might have something to do with the closure?
I found them friendly but there wasnt much effort to try and sell you anything. That may have been part of the problem.
that bloke driving makes a lot of practical sense
For the entire video I was concerned Terry was going to have to brake hard and you were going to demonstrate high speed sword swallowing. Or even worse, he rear-ends a card and the air bag goes off😮
This has been my thoughts over the last few years. Preceded by car sales being purely driven by finance deals. I buy my cars cheap and keep as long as I can, advice from my dad who owned a car dealership. Lost my licence recently through health so double whammy for me. Like losing a leg.
My first bike was a honda c50, a year old 1972 from a dealer £100😂😂😂
I paid for my daughter to get her full licence over 3 yrs cost well over £2k abs ridiculous. I was of the 16 and a 50cc brigade, a year get a 250cc then straight to 750
The superbike warehouse in Yarmouth closed but reopened under a different name with same staff. So still selling rubbish and conning people.
I think its cost of licence then the absolute joke that insurance seems to be these days. I went to the local piaggio dealer the other day for some gearbox oil none in stock but they had an electric BMW 125 equivalent for £6000 how can someone you justify that and then have £1000+ on insurance.
Then its all the thefts! I've a good friend thats stopped riding bikes after 30 years because bikes will get nicked while you go and pay for fuel.
I have a 24 aprillia rs 125 at 20, insurance was the same price as the bike... 4k, hate it
Sold my ZX12 ten years, did 3000 miles in five years on it, all the fast country roads up here, Wales, Cumbria, Peak District have average speed cameras.
Never again, I might buy another Monkeybike.
J S Gedge is still going, thank heavens. One of the few family run business left in the area, the service they offer is excellent and the reason I bought my new bike from them. I've only passed my test last November and I'm fff fifty something, completely hooked I own a Honda VFR800 VTEC (my first bike) and a Honda Africa Twin DCT and ridden 7,000 miles for pleasure miles between them in the past year, not including the ones I've bought and sold! The test centre and my instructor is always busy, it does seem that many people are going for bikes. It's the best thing I've ever done.
A whole chain of car & motorbike dealers just went into administration; Completely Motoring, and its bike division Completely Motorbikes, shut for a mysterious 'audit' last Saturday with people still waiting for bikes they'd paid deposits for, and when people looked into the situation they found an administrator had been appointed. They had various dealerships in Wales and mostly the west Midlands.
Also, Hartgate Motorcycles in Mitcham has downsized drastically, from a four-unit spread to just one unit on Upper Green East. Much cruder sign as well. The website and Facebook page still have the old address, and pictures of the old frontage.
BTW: CBT costs nearly £200 in a lot of places now, especially inside the M25.
£200 😱😱😱 I think mine was 75 quid was going back a few years tho
@@BigPezza I did a two day course to learn to operate a HIAB crane in Croydon this year. Cost me just over £700 and it was one-to-one (that's £350 a day). A one-to-one CBT costs £500 here. Given that any truck with a HIAB costs a lot more than a 125cc bike, how on earth can they justify that?
I bought my Cub from Superbike Factory, happy with it, but you are correct! My bike is a 19 plate and only 256 miles on it! I financed with a view to paying it off within a few months!
These companies haven't gone just because of slow business but because the market has become obsessed with PCP which makes money for manufacturers (values can be increased) and finance companies. Creates loads of stock which these high dealers have to hold, don't shift them and essentially their assets are just constantly devaluing.
Nice one the small town I was brought up in had two dedicated bike shops all gone now. Go to any bike nite or rally its mostly older people. The bikes are very expensive now and it's hard to get a licence. I started on a 50cc then 250. Then took test no messing about.
There was always loads of cheap bikes about as well
Who buys a new 125? Like everyone else, I bought a second hand 125 to do my CBT, Mod 1 7 2 and get my licence as soon as possible. I had a Suzuki Slingshot that cost me about £800.
Always loved the Honda Cubs - learnt to ride on one on fields, while still at Primary School. Awesome fun!!!
me to we called it the Honda 50 ??
yeah i think alot of people did we still use them today great on camping trips
@@allanhughes7859 We called it "The Placky Rat". But that's kids for you!!! 🤣🤣🤣
Insurance is preventing young riders. I passed my CBT a few months back and with 30 years NCD on my car, a 125 was £650. What is a 17 year old being stung for. Then your tests too.
Its why the average age is 54 and why BMWs sell well in big bikes, it's not a mystery.
I had a really bad experience with superbike factory, ended up getting a refund.
He’s right they do sell shite.
oh dear they sold you a lemmon?
@@BigPezza
It lasted 3 miles before it broke down, when I took it back they said they couldn’t find a fault, they clearly couldn’t be arsed so I’ve bought a brand new one instead.
Probably not worth there time investigating
My second bike was a yamaha DT125 l paid 450 new in 1978.
I enjoyed a very good deal at Superbike Factory. A three-year-old RT with 3000 miles. It wás in perfect nick at the most competitive price available in UK (Autotrader, ebay, Gumtree). The battery was goosed (lack of use) and SBF paid for the new one I bought. I bought the bike for cash so I can't speak about SBF finance deals.
ducati 250 single 600 quid from a place in croyden early eighties
I just ride my scooter now just for my daily commute .
I’ve had three motorcycles stolen in 18 months .
My R9T and a CRF300l and a CRF250L
Put my insurance from fully comp to third party only so that’s it I’m done with motorbikes .
And what you get for your money for a motorbike is an absolute rip off in comparison to a car .
@@jamesbatten8659 oh man I feel your pain I had 3 bikes nicked over the years one of them was a crf250l as well 😪. I don't even use my small bike to commute on cause in fear someone gonna nick it I use my BMW cause it's big and has imobiser and alarm.
A motorbike was what we did in our dim and distant youth like a rites of passage , most of us moved onto cars , some died and some never left bikes , How many people do you see riding a bike to work all year round ? Bikes are just a summertime toy bought by blokes in midlife crissis , then realise it's not the fun it was in their youth !
I can only reiterate , what everyone else has said..
Price to pass your test.
Overpriced motorbikes.
Insurance.
The loans to buy it..
I bought a brand new zzr1400 in 2020..it cost me £600 to insure, I went to insure my bike this year and the quote I got was 5k..Despite having over 13years NCB..I struggled to get a single quote. I was considering getting rid of my bike. I dropped the value of my bike and got insurance..
Btw, I was a 20-plus years biker for all weather's.
Also, its the cost of living, people are struggling to survive, never mind buying new bikes, I prefer bikes over cars, probably always will, just need the government to make it easier....
One thing you've not talked about is the electric push bikes . Why would a sixteen year old pay 1.5k plus for a 50cc scooter when they can get a surron thats faster no insurance no tax no licence 😅
I love how you 2 plant pots talk about your mate who needed to get a dealer service on his cf moto especially as it has a chinese engine in it , when your recording on a chinese camera, have a chinese made i phone or samsung, watch a telly at home made in china, having a cold beer from a chinese made fridge whilst eating a chinese takeaway and driving in a car with chinese made components,and love your BMW bikes with engines made in the Loncin factory in CHINA , right pair you are
haha yeah i should have said CF moto is just a chinese KTM some china stuff is ok but its really hit and miss and my BMW was made in west germany before the wall came down
@@BigPezza true cf is just a chinese ktm ,keep up the videos pal ,no hard feelings just light harted banter with no offense meant at all ,if your ever up north call in and see us at Bennetts motorcycles we might even let you have a demo on a Benelli 702 and if your really nice an MV Enduro Veloce Chinese versus Italian . Regards Phil
It's pretty sad!
I enjoy being part of the minority though
Superbike factory is a good place to window shop that's it
All things go in circles,presently the kids want cars,but the cost of learning and astronomical insurance costs will eventually drive them away and probably back to small motorcycles as what we did as kids,now think about this, the Japanese are now concentrating and developing mainly small motorcycles up to say 500cc,not that many big ones,I think they're realising what the next generation will want.Time will tell
bought my daughter a yamaha yb125 - just over a grand, great bike - people don't need to buy new and if they do that is because they are getting bad advice from people around them or worse still, twats on the web with vlogs who try to act as knowledgable.....
the license structure is idiotic - i passed my cbt in 92 in just over an hour and my license took 6 lessons, i have ridden safely for 32 years - as usual, gvt over reach has helped the destruction of new riders as with many things but they are too stupid to acknowledge their decisions that ultimately affect economy, never mind peoples well being
more over though i think it is the rise of the weak minded constantly saying biking is dangerous, these are the same type of twats who will have you living in a sealed airbox at home wearing masks because its winter - i have ridden since i was 4 years old, i grew up in sidecars and on the back of choppers in a motorcycle chapter and i am still here, all my mates who ride are still here
painting the death is foolish - shops come and go, life is peaks and troughs - this is simply a trough and people should stop trying to make a self fulfilling prophecy from it
I think you have tapped a vein here Pezza, looks like this video has legs!
Looking at the financials, P&H weren't a picture or profit even before 2020. It was a big hit at a bad time, but they look to have bounced back the following two years. 2023 doesn't look particularly good either though. I imagine Paul decided he's had a good run of it over the past 40-odd years and just wants to retire now. As in while the business still has the sort of value that can fund his retirement.
This market looks to be quite risky, going by the thin gross margins I see in the data.
yeah they got hit by covid and they never really recoverd from it
@@BigPezza They made more net profit in the two years following than in those preceding ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
At least according to their companies house filings.
But I'm looking only at the numbers, haven't been there in absolute ages, so most of the above is pure speculation on my part.
Groombridges going was a shock in itself. They sold Kawasaki, Suzuki, Benelli and Royal Enfield to name a few. I bought my first big bike from them in the late 90's. Heard about P&H from Hippodrones on twitter, but didn't know it's going to be a Superbike Factory.. Not sure about that one, as I have heard more bad than good about them.
Dark times, really. Two major dealers now gone/going from the south..
I really think if superbikefactory was that bad they would not be in business anymore but they seem sell alot of volume so there is bound to be a higher amount of complaints
P&H? In Crawley?
@@233kosta Yes, P&H Crawley.
What can we as bikers do, to save the industry
Encourage people to maybe consider getting a motorbike 🤔 want to ride a thing where you gonna get cold and wet and not seen by car drivers 😅 maybe I should keep quiet 🤐
@@BigPezza 🤣 yeah your seles skills need some work!
The industry needs to change to meet the needs of its customers. Sports touring is making a quick comeback. The demand for high end sports bikes has dropped of a cliff but low end cc machines are in high demand.
people arent doing there car license either its all too expensive and over priced and also anyone doing a cbt that should be the license for a 125 and you shouldnt have to ever take it again that would help , but prices too high not enough demand and that means too much supply not being sold just like crappy EV,s theres a mountain of that junk in fields at ports nobody is buying them , but its all designed to get you off the roads.
Its the price off japanese bikes + italian an german bikes bloody ripping bikers off an they dont like the chinese bikes comin on the market cuttin there prices in half .bringing new models out every yr dosnt help either..
Not a good idea holding a steel rule in front of your throat in a moving car - the outcome would not be a good one in the event of a sudden stop - good content however.
It's happening all over the country, not just with motorcycles, but with any discretionary purchase - caravans and motorhomes for example. The younger end also do not have the disposable income to even consider motorcycling, they are struggling to pay the rent and living costs. Modern inclusive Britain for you.
Yeah 😅 noted I will swap to something less metal and sharp.
You're not a biker anymore. you're a road warrior.
To many wankers not paying attention and putting our lives at risk.
That coupled with the cost of getting a licence, the bike, (silly money) and all of the clobber you have to wear protecting you from said wankers, its no surprise youngsters aren't taking up biking.
I still ride, but it's not as pleasurable as it used to be.
It really does seem like the death of motorcycling, certainly in this area at least, but aside from the demographic, there's also the fact that all our local roads, as well as being chockablock full of cars and trucks 24/7 with drivers who have no idea and no regard for other road users, are also completely f**ked from many years of previous Government neglect. I remember a time when I used to enjoy the commute but pretty much every day is a life and death risk situation or, if I take an alternative route, just plain boringly slow, for me now. Also, the whole e-vehicle thing is looming large, unless they find an alternative fuel for ICE then we'll all be forced onto electric bikes in a few year's time because fuel costs will skyrocket. The weather also seems to be getting consistently worse each year, the price of gear is through the roof and there's not a single open road around here to speak of. I'm not surprised really, but so many bike shops closing or changing, you mentioned all of the bike shops I know and the only one that's thriving is the one I had my worst experience with so never go there anymore, despite it being just a few minute's ride away for me (I even have an old Suzuki to work on - Oh well, the Suzuki place in Bookham will still be the one I use).
I think people up north where it's less busy seem to have a healthier attitude towards motorcycling and motorcyclists and I guess, one of the main reasons it's the older gen that rides is that they have the cash to maybe ride further afield to warmer climbs (as well as being able to afford new bikes).
All that said, there is a little hope, a new shop on the A22 in Blindley Heath has just opened, he sells a few bikes, has some gear and some consumables, he says he's busy so all is not quite lost just yet.
I love the ABR festival as much as I love the Armchair Adventure Festival, events like these are great for the biker community, they're always great fun and you always end up having amazing conversations with amazing people. They're easy events and the trail at the ABR festival is great. Don't knock them until you've tried them, yes there are lots of old geezers that go but there are also shed loads of young people there as well.
As I said earlier, all is not lost, it's just that we all need to move up north where it's cheaper and nicer (though quite a bit wetter I guess). Wales does pretty well as well as far as I know. maybe we should all move to Spain (as long as the locals don't start hurling abuse at us for being tourists! :-D)
It has been a while since I've watched your videos, thanks for this one and I'll make sure to watch them more often in the future, they're great. Last time I watched you had a VFR, now you're on another Beemer! Nice one, Beemers are great, as long as you can do your own work. I have three, I'm lucky not to need any assistance with fixing or servicing and love riding them if/when they're on the road (2 out of 3 at the moment), though I still haven't yet resolved the difficult first gear issues on either the G or the F (650GSs).
Yeah the VFR was a great bike but the BMW looked really cool I have done the work myself it did save tones of money
East Sussex ffs……’on the way to Kent’ 🤣
This was very early on a Sunday morning 😅 our brains not quite in gear
P&H in Crawley?
Sold to Superbike factory
There to expensive
Houses are too expensive
@@steve00alt70Living is too expensive
*They're.
If motorcycles were invented now, they would never be allowed in to traffic, because they are too dangerous
i think you are correct
@@BigPezza I wish I was the one who came up with that, but I am sure I heard it from someone at some point.
I'm sorry but that is an stupid statement to make, bikes are not dangerous, cars are not dangerous, the operators of the vehicles are the ones that can make them dangerous.
Neither would petrol. Or helicopters. Or shark cages. Or Caterhams. But luckily for us, all of these things were invented before we listened to women. There. I said it.
So are we just ignoring e scooters and electric unicycle wheels that can go up to 60mph on roads?