Kiwi Rider December 2023 Vol.2 | Page 93

ROAD NEWS
as rounds one and two of both parallel but separate competitions . The Suzuki International Series phase of the 2023-24 season wraps up , as always , on Whanganui ’ s famous Cemetery Circuit on Boxing Day . The Boxing Day ‘ street fight ’ is not part of
the NZSBK series and that six-round NZSBK competition resumes in the New Year , with rounds three , four and five in the South Island – at Christchurch , Timaru and Invercargill respectively – with the series then travelling north again to wrap up with round six at Hampton Downs , near Huntly , in March .

HONDA LEADS SALES IN 2023

With the year nearly at an end , our eyes start to turn to the Motor Industry Association ’ s website and their monthly registration statistics to find what Kiwis ’ favourite bikes are of the year . For 2023 , it looks set to be Honda taking the prize for NZ ’ s favourite bike brand with 1123 new Honda motorcycles being registered for use on Kiwi roads between January and November . That ’ s from a total of 8157 new motorcycles registered to the end of November 2023 - a whopping 13.76 % of the overall market . Honda ’ s top selling bike ? The mighty CT125 with 181 bikes registered across all variants .

Suzuki takes second place with 971 new bikes registered with Yamaha claiming third spot with 723 new registrations to November 2023 . Over in the smaller end of the market , a total of 1952 sub-50cc bikes have also been registered this year which includes larger electric offerings such as BMW ’ s CE04 and a lone Energica Experia . So far , the lowest seller of what we ’ d consider the big name brands is MV Agusta , with just two bikes registered in 2023 to November . We ’ ll know the final breakdown of 2023 bike sales in early January when this month ’ s figures are released by the MIA .
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