As of June 2006, In NSW we have
- 270,000 active or latent riders
- 121,000 registered motorcycles
- 84,000 unregistered off-road motorcycles
- 400,000 motorcycle licenses held by residents
The Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) is the motorcycle manufacturers organisation and their website presents a <a href="http://www.fcai.com.au/motorcycles.php/2006/02/00000004.html" target="_blank">Profile of the Australian Motorcycle Industry</a> <a href="http://www.fcai.com.au/media/2006/07/00000113.html" target="_blank">2006 Sales figures from FCAI </a> shows that motorcycle sales continue to expand,
<a href="http://www.fcai.com.au/media/2007/01/00000125.html" target="_blank">FCAI reports nearly 30% increase in Road bike sales</a> Motorcycle road fleet expanding rapidly
FCAI note off-road motorcycles at around 85% of registered motorcycle numbers. Our estimate is more conservative at around 70%. Data quality issues to do with ABS ceasing collection of sales and registration and the move to reliance on industry sales data may have led to a small discrepancy across 2004 when off-road sales were booming.
However, the overall fleet or registered motorcycles has expanded in NSW by around 30% in the past five years.
In their report on a survey of riders over 30 years of age, Haworth et al concluded that 30% of those with a motorcycle license would cease riding and never ride again.
<a href="http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/muarc192.html" target="_blank">Haworth, N. Mulvihill, C. Symmons, M., 2002, Motorcycling after 30 MUARC </a>
Reducing the overall number of licenses on issue in NSW by 30% leaves 270,000 riders on 120,000 + 80,000 (= 200,000) motorcycles in the NSW fleet.
The population of riders is a rotating pool of those who give up riding for certain periods of time and then re-bike. The age group 26-39 remains fairly constant in exposure population (see crash data) as these are the mortgage and child raising years, with people giving up riding and then resuming later. (For Sale,.... baby on way")
