Junior options and soft trail bikes drive Australian Motorcycle Sales recovery

Motorcycle Sales Figures

January 1 through September 30, 2026

Australia – FCAI brands

Australia’s FCAI-audited motorcycle and Off-Highway Vehicle market has recorded its first nine-month sales increase since 2021, with 68,304 units reported between January 1 and September 30, 2026.

That compares with 63,988 units across the same period in 2025, an increase of 4316 units, or 6.7 per cent.

The result reverses four consecutive years of declining January-to-September sales and is the strongest for that period since 2023. However, the underlying story remains very much segment-driven, with off-road motorcycles accounting for more than the entire net increase.

Indeed, the off-road category added 4505 sales compared with last year, exceeding the overall market’s gain of 4316 units. Without that off-road growth, the remaining road motorcycle, scooter and OHV categories would collectively have recorded a slight decline.

We have strong grounds to believe that a significant proportion of this growth is coming from the more affordable end of the off-road market, particularly kids’ motorcycles, fun bikes, and softer trail machinery, rather than reflecting a comparable boom in expensive competition enduro and motocross motorcycles.

That assessment is backed by more than anecdotal observations. In our analysis of the first-half 2026 results, we reported that the FCAI had identified increases of 32 per cent in kids’ motorcycle sales and a remarkable 131 per cent in the trail category.

Those figures were for the first six months of 2026, and the FCAI has not supplied an equivalent breakdown for the September quarter. However, its latest release specifically identifies fun, trail and motocross motorcycles as strong performers, reinforcing the broader recreational riding trend.

The headline result is encouraging, but it does not mean all sections of the Australian motorcycle industry are recovering at the same pace.

Road motorcycle sales were effectively unchanged at 24,163 units, down just 19 motorcycles on the corresponding period last year. Scooters improved by 4.3 per cent, while OHV sales declined by 3.3 per cent.

Sales by segment were as follows:

• Road motorcycles: 24,163 (down 0.1 per cent)
• Off-road motorcycles: 30,845 (up 17.1 per cent)
• Off-Highway Vehicles (OHVs): 9502 (down 3.3 per cent)
• Scooters: 3794 (up 4.3 per cent)

Motorcycle Sales Figures (FCAI)
January 1 through September 30, 2026

Off-road motorcycles carry the market

The off-road sector has unquestionably been the engine room of the Australian motorcycle market during 2026.

Sales reached 30,845 units during the first nine months, up from 26,340 in 2025. That represents a 17.1 per cent increase and is the strongest January-to-September result for off-road motorcycles since the extraordinary COVID-era sales boom of 2021.

Off-road motorcycles now account for 45.2 per cent of the combined FCAI-audited motorcycle and OHV market, compared with 41.2 per cent at the same point last year.

They outsold road motorcycles by 6682 units, a considerable widening of the 2158-unit gap recorded in the first nine months of 2025.

When we examined the opening quarter of 2026, off-road sales were already running 26.7 per cent ahead of the previous year.

By the half-year mark, the sector had grown by 21.6 per cent to 20,417 units. The FCAI’s identification of particularly strong demand for children’s motorcycles and light trail bikes provided an important clue as to where that growth was being generated.

A relatively affordable junior trail bike, a family fun bike, a soft trail motorcycle and a high-performance competition enduro machine all contribute one unit to the off-road sales tally, despite appealing to very different customers and representing very different retail values.

Consequently, a strong increase in off-road unit volume should not automatically be interpreted as equivalent growth in the more expensive competition motocross market, or in overall motorcycle sales dollars.

We suspect junior and recreational trail motorcycles account for a substantial share of the off-road improvement. The FCAI’s first-half data supports that view, although the absence of detailed model and subcategory reporting prevents us from putting an accurate number on their contribution across the full nine months.

There is historical precedent. When more detailed data was available, the Honda CRF110F and CRF50F were Australia’s two biggest-selling off-road models in 2021, showing how important relatively inexpensive, family-oriented motorcycles can be to overall industry volume.

The latest figures suggest that family and recreational riding remain central to the health of the Australian motorcycle market.

Growth continued in Q3, but at a slower rate

Another interesting development is hidden within the cumulative figures.

Australia’s FCAI-audited market recorded 46,023 sales in the first half of 2026, compared with 42,549 in the corresponding six months of 2025. That represented growth of 8.2 per cent.

Subtracting those first-half totals from the latest nine-month figures reveals that 22,281 units were sold during July, August and September 2026, compared with 21,439 during Q3 2025.

That is an increase of 842 units, or 3.9 per cent.

It means the market continued to grow through Q3, but at a considerably slower rate than during the first six months of the year.

Australian Motorcycle Sales
Stand-alone Quarterly Comparisons

The moderation is particularly evident in the off-road category.

After increasing 26.7 per cent in Q1 and 21.6 per cent over the first six months, off-road sales in Q3 alone were about 9.2 per cent ahead of the corresponding quarter last year, based on the half-year comparisons published in July.

That remains healthy growth, and the category continues to provide most of the overall market improvement. However, the pace is easing, raising the question of whether the market is returning to a more sustainable rate of expansion after a particularly strong start to 2026.

Road motorcycles improved modestly in the latest three months, while scooter sales also strengthened after a softer first half. OHVs moved in the opposite direction.

For some historical context, our 2023 third-quarter analysis found the opposite pattern, with the market recovering some of the ground lost during a weak first half that year.

Thus, while 2026 remains comfortably ahead of 2025, the improving year-to-date total conceals a more modest growth rate in the latest quarter.

Industry contacts suggest stock shortages may have constrained third-quarter deliveries, rather than the slower growth necessarily signalling weaker underlying demand.

Road motorcycle sales remain the concern

The FCAI describes road motorcycle sales as stable, and on a straightforward year-on-year basis that is a fair assessment.

Sales of 24,163 units during the first nine months of 2026 compare with 24,182 in 2025, a difference of just 19 motorcycles.

That is a marked improvement on the 3.8 per cent decline recorded in our 2025 Q3 sales report, and suggests the road segment may finally be finding a more stable footing.

Road sales during the first nine months of 2022 totalled 26,245 units. By 2023 that had slipped to 25,952, then 25,127 in 2024, 24,182 in 2025 and now 24,163 in 2026.

That makes the latest result the lowest January-to-September road motorcycle sales total in our six-year comparison, despite an extensive range of new machinery, the arrival of increasingly competitively priced alternatives and a succession of new models across the industry.

It is also worth remembering that some of the brands making particularly strong inroads into the Australian road motorcycle market, notably CFMOTO and Royal Enfield, are not represented in the FCAI figures.

Consequently, this audit alone cannot establish how the complete Australian road motorcycle market is performing. The apparent stagnation may partly reflect changing brand market shares rather than simply a lack of demand for road-going motorcycles.

That distinction matters as Chinese and Indian manufacturers continue to expand their model ranges and Australian dealer networks.

Scooters improve while OHVs contract

Scooter sales rose 4.3 per cent to 3794 units, up 156 from the 3638 sold during the corresponding period last year.

That follows the 4.6 per cent scooter improvement recorded during the first nine months of 2025, reversing some of the substantial contraction seen in 2024.

However, the segment is still below the 4413 scooters sold during the corresponding period in 2023, which remains the strongest January-to-September scooter result of the past six years.

Meanwhile, OHV sales declined by 326 units, or 3.3 per cent, to 9502.

That continues the general downward trend in the FCAI-audited OHV market, although this category has undergone significant structural change since 2021.

The introduction of mandatory operator protection requirements for general-use quad bikes led major manufacturers to withdraw from parts of the agricultural ATV market, while some major side-by-side suppliers are not included in the FCAI audit.

That makes the OHV segment particularly difficult to compare directly with the much larger sales volumes recorded earlier in the decade.

Australian Motorcycle Sales Figures
Six-Year Q1-Q2-Q3 Comparison

The longer-term comparison provides some useful perspective on the 2026 recovery.

At 68,304 units, the latest result is ahead of both 2024 and 2025, but remains just 448 units short of the 68,752 recorded in 2023, and 2078 units below 2022.

It also remains well below the extraordinary 86,239 units recorded in the first nine months of 2021, when COVID-era demand for recreational motorcycles and a rush to buy agricultural quad bikes ahead of regulatory changes inflated the market.

The following figures compare the same January-to-September period across all six years, drawing on our earlier 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 reports.

*Two-wheel only combines road motorcycles, off-road motorcycles and scooters, excluding Off-Highway Vehicles. All figures are January 1 through September 30, not full-calendar-year results. FCAI-audited brands only.

The motorcycle market looks different without OHVs

Looking solely at the combined FCAI total, sales remain 17,935 units, or 20.8 per cent, below their January-to-September 2021 level.

But that headline comparison can be misleading when assessing the health of the motorcycle market. OHV sales alone have fallen from 21,590 units in 2021 to 9502 in 2026, a reduction of 12,088 vehicles.

In other words, around two-thirds of the entire reduction in the combined FCAI market since 2021 has come from the OHV category, which has been heavily affected by changes to Australia’s agricultural quad-bike market. If we remove OHVs from the equation and concentrate on motorcycles and scooters, the picture is considerably more positive.

Sales of road motorcycles, off-road motorcycles and scooters combined reached 58,802 units during the first nine months of 2026, compared with 54,160 during the same period last year. That is growth of 8.6 per cent.

It also puts the actual two-wheeled FCAI-audited market within 415 units of its corresponding 2022 result, and around nine per cent below the exceptional sales volumes of 2021.

That is perhaps a more meaningful indication of how the motorcycle industry is performing than the headline FCAI total, which combines recreational motorcycles and urban transport with agricultural and utility vehicles.

Of course, even this comparison excludes the substantial number of motorcycles sold by brands outside the FCAI audit.

What can we expect from the final quarter?

The first nine months of 2026 indicate a recovery in Australian motorcycle sales, but one driven overwhelmingly by off-road machinery rather than a broad-based improvement across every category.

The slowdown in off-road growth in Q3 will be worth watching as the industry moves toward its full-year result.

Whether demand for kids’ motorcycles and light trail bikes continues at the same pace, and whether the traditional road market can finally generate meaningful growth, will be among the more interesting questions as 2026 draws to a close.

There are certainly encouraging signs, particularly when the market is viewed without the distortions introduced by the much smaller agricultural ATV segment.

But a substantial gap remains between an off-road-led recovery in unit sales and a genuinely strong motorcycle market across all price points and categories.

This is not the full picture

Unfortunately, these are still the only broad motorcycle sales figures we now receive from the official FCAI audit.

Historically, we could examine brand-by-brand and model-by-model performance, allowing us to identify precisely which motorcycles were selling, which categories were growing, and how particular manufacturers were performing.

That level of detail would be especially valuable now, when the available data points towards a possible resurgence in lower-priced junior and recreational trail motorcycles rather than uniform growth throughout the off-road sector.

Instead, FCAI-aligned brands continue to hold their cards close to their chest. That is why readers no longer see the detailed model-by-model and motorcycle category sales analysis that MCNews.com.au regularly published in previous years.

New Zealand has a transparent mechanism with public monthly reporting of vehicle registration data. Here in Australia, it has all gone a bit secret squirrel.

It should be noted that some major motorcycle brands are not represented in the official FCAI audit.

The reluctance of manufacturers outside the FCAI to contribute their figures appears to have been one factor behind the move to much more limited public reporting, with member brands seemingly reluctant to provide valuable market intelligence to their competitors.

Urban Moto Imports represents brands including Royal Enfield, Benelli, Segway and Rieju, none of which are included in these FCAI figures. Urban Moto Imports is also preparing the Australian introduction of ZXMOTO.

Likewise, CFMOTO, Kymco and Sherco, distributed by Mojo Motorcycles, are not included in these figures because they are not FCAI members.

CFMOTO in particular has established a substantial presence in the Australian market, with the success of models such as the 450MT likely accounting for significant sales volumes that are invisible in the FCAI road motorcycle figures.

Other manufacturers operating outside the audit also contribute to the real Australian motorcycle market, which is significantly larger than these official figures indicate.

With 68,304 units reported by FCAI brands during the first nine months of 2026, we believe actual Australian motorcycle and OHV sales across all brands are likely somewhere around 85,000 units, although that remains an informed estimate rather than an independently verified total.

And that is precisely why greater transparency around motorcycle registration and sales data would be so valuable to the industry, its dealers and Australian motorcyclists.

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