When looking to buy the best motorcycle for you, one of the most useful guides is always which are the most popular or top selling. After all, whether it’s bikes, cars, TVs or pretty much anything else, products only become best sellers if they deliver what people expect and are considered good value and trustworthy.
Which makes this a time of year a great one for thinking about your next new bike purchase as, not only is spring and the new biking season approaching fast, but the official sales figures for 2024 are now available – revealing which motorcycles have been the best sellers over the previous 12 months.
The UK’s Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) collates all the sales data from British new bike registrations and, on a monthly basis, issues press releases revealing the best-selling machines for that month, breaking down sales by capacity classes (such as up to 125cc) and the different types of motorcycles (such as adventure or sports touring). In December, meanwhile, it also issues year-to-date data revealing total registrations and more over the course of the year.
From all of that, we can extrapolate which motorcycle models have been the best-selling bikes over the whole year in an assortment of categories.
Before we get into all that, however, there is one ‘quirk’ you should be aware of. It’s worth pointing out that 2024 has been a slightly unusual year for new motorcycle sales due to the imposition of the new Euro5+ emissions and noise regulations, which came into effect on January 1, 2025.
New machines that didn’t comply had to be sold (or pre-registered) by that date, in turn leading to a flood of discount deals and pre-registrations which inflated December registrations. As a result, new registrations in December 2024 were over double those for December 2023, at 11,206 machines compared to 5,236 for the previous year.
This in itself accounted for overall 2024 registrations being slightly up, by 2.3% overall, when, for much of 2024, registrations were actually down on the previous year. While some of these bikes will have been retailed, many will be sitting in dealerships to be sold as zero mile second hand bikes. And while registrations do not automatically equate to retails (they would also include demo bikes as well as the pre-registrations we’ve already mentioned), there’s definitely a lot of zero mileage stock out there. Meaning there are likely to be some bargains out there at the start of the riding season.
The spike also meant that BMW’s outgoing R 1250 GS Adventure which proved a surprise sales hit as buyers rushed to snap up the outgoing model, sometimes at a snip, over its R 1300 successor.
But we’re not just concerned just with 1000cc+ bikes here – we wanted to know the best sellers in all categories, from 125cc up and covering all types. So, without any further ado, here’s our round up of the best-selling bikes of 2024 over the five best-selling categories, what they are and what they offer you!
RETROS
First up, the overall best-selling bike of 2024 was actually not one, but two machines. To explain. In early 2024 Britain’s own Triumph caused something of a motorcycling sales sensation when it launched its all-new 400cc single. Based on an all-new, liquid-cooled, 40bhp, single cylinder motor and bespoke chassis, the result was not one, but two new bikes: the Triumph Speed 400 retro-styled roadster and the slightly larger (and pricier) Triumph 400X Scrambler which had taller bars, off-road style wheels and so on.
With prices originally starting at £5195 for the Speed 400 and the Scrambler £600 more, both immediately impressed for their blend of excellent performance, characteristically Triumph decent handling and good quality, and, as a result, proved massive sales hits. The cheaper Speed 400 has been the bigger seller but the Scrambler 400X isn’t far behind and, if considered together, Triumph’s new ‘baby’ is far and away the biggest selling 125cc+ bike of 2024.
Read our Triumph Speed 400 review and our Triumph Scrambler 400 X review online.
It's also worth stating here that Triumph wasn’t the only manufacturer having great success with a c.400cc machines. Royal Enfield’s cute single-cylinder custom, the Meteor 350 and its new lightweight, liquid-cooled adventure machine, the Himalayan 450, have also been big sellers in 2024 helping make the category the most successful of the whole year becoming, sub-125s apart, the most popular category of all.
Read our review of the Himalayan.
BIG CAPACITY ADVENTURES
Next on the best-sellers list was, as mentioned above, BMW’s R 1250 GS Adventure, but as that bike has now been dropped, we’d direct you instead to its replacement which, although only on sale since September, has already proved a hugely popular machine – the BMW R1300GSA.
In 2024, the old ‘ShiftCam’ 1250 was replaced by an all-new 1300, first in standard GS trim, then, towards the end of the year, by a new ‘Adventure’ version with bigger tank, more rugged features and more off-road prowess – the R1300GSA. In both forms it has been one of 2024’s biggest sellers and is a phenomenally capable machine, being lighter, lower, more powerful (145bhp from 136bhp) and more sophisticated machine than the old 1250, even if its styling has proved a little divisive. There’s even a new ‘semi-automatic’ option, too.
Read our BMW R 1300 GS Adventure review online.
MIDDLEWEIGHT ROADSTERS
One of Europe’s best-selling bikes of the last decade, the accessible, fun, entertaining and affordable Yamaha MT-07 was again a UK best seller in the middleweight 500-750cc class in 2024 – which is even more impressive when you realise it’s due a major update in 2025.
Until then, there’s plenty to still like about the 2024 version. Its ‘Crossplane’ parallel twin remains one of motorcycling’s great engines being grunty, flexible and fast. Its lightweight chassis with decent cycle parts still delivers a brilliant blend of easy, day-to-day practicality yet nimble, involving handling.
And, at around £7000 it remains brilliant value, if you can still find one. While the new version, with revised styling, new dash and more for £7700 looks to have enough to keep it ahead of increasingly fierce competition such as Honda’s new 91bhp CB750 Hornet and Suzuki’s GSX-8S.
Read our Yamaha MT07 review online.
MIDDLEWEIGHT ADVENTURES
Another category which remains hugely popular is that for middleweight adventure machines, ie between 700 and 900cc – and it’s not hard to see why. With much of the versatility and style of a full-blown 1000cc+ adventure bike yet the manageability and affordability of a middleweight, they’re genuine do-it-all machines for relatively little money.
Yamaha rejuvenated the category with its first MT-07-derived Ténéré 700 in 2019 and it now has plenty of credible rivals such as KTM’s 890 Adventure, Honda’s excellent Transalp 750 and Suzuki’s new V-Strom 800, but one of the best sellers is the Triumph Tiger 900 GT Pro, the top spec, more road-orientated incarnation of its Tiger 900.
In many ways, this shouldn’t be a surprise: Triumph was one of the first manufacturers to explore the ‘middleweight adventure’ category when it launched its first Tiger 800 in 2010 (second only to BMW with its ‘junior GS’, 2008’s F800GS). Successive updates followed with the latest being the base 900 GT (£12,195), Pro and more dirt-focussed £14,495 Rally Pro. All have TFT dashes, great handling, fruity performance, plenty of electronics and more yet retain manageability and affordability.
Read our Triumph Tiger 900 GT Pro review.
COMMUTER SCOOTERS
But the biggest selling, most popular and most competitive category of all, based on 2024 UK sales, remains for 125cc scooters, with two machines standing out – Honda’s PCX125 and its main rival, the just-updated Yamaha NMAX 125.
The reason for that popularity is simple: at 125cc they’re A1 licence compatible, so you can ride them on a provisional licence with a valid CBT certificate; as ‘twist and go’ scooters they’re simple and easy to ride and, as affordable, effective scooters, they appeal to both cost-conscious commuters and delivery riders.
The PCX125 which has now been around in various forms since 2009 remains a great choice, but the Yamaha just pips it for 2024 sales. Both have sporty styling, easy handling, LCD/TFT dashes that are Smartphone connectable, return well over 100mpg, and are impressively equipped. If you’re interested, it will probably come down to which dealer is more local or has a better deal. If you’re looking for a bargain, word on the street is that quite a few of the outgoing models were pre-registered and are unsold.
With the 2025 versions offering only minor updates, there could be some bargains to be had.
Read our review of the NMAX.
According to British trade publication British Dealer News, the Triumph 400s contributed to the Hinckley manufacturer registering 11,000 bikes in the UK for the first time, with a record of over 133,000 bikes sold worldwide – 40% of which were the 400s.
