While the v-twin industry eyes Harley-Davidson's recent performance with concern, spare a thought for 'metric' dealers.
While some manufacturers such as BMW, Ducati, KTM, Triumph and MV Agusta are doing well in the context of their historically much lower production bases, dealers for the Japanese "Big Four" are not yet seeing the love of recovery spread their way.
The latest data from the Japanese Motorcycle Industry Trade Association (JAMA) puts Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki exports to Europe down by nearly 8 percent over April 2014, and just about level for the four months of the year to April at 67,131 units.
To put that in context, this year's 12,742 exports to Europe in April compare to 52,061 in 2007, and 199,114 for that year to date.
In percentage decline terms, the picture is even worse for dealers in the United States. April saw a -43.22 percent drop in Japanese motorcycle exports to their American dealers, at 5,466 - down from 9,626 in April 2014. In April 2007 their exports to America were 33,950.
For the year to date, Japanese exports are -28.45 percent, at 34,220 units compared to 47,830 for the first four months of 2014 and a whopping 162,066 units for the first months of 2007.
At this rate, it is already clear that Japanese motorcycle dealers in the United States are headed for a bad year - one unlikely to meet the 120,699 units sold in 2014. That itself, thought slightly up on 2011, 2012 and 2013, compares to the 331,978 units shipped to US dealers in 2007.
