I can?t remember it ever being so difficult to get hold of new bikes. Race teams are having to wait longer than ever to get their hands on their 2021 competition machines, dealers haven?t got enough stock to fill their showrooms and the press, desperate to test the latest and greatest machinery, are fighting over a slack handful of new models. Giving our money to bike manufactures has never been so much of a drama. But what?s going on" Where are all the new bikes, and when will we see showrooms full of new models again"

The perfect storm

It?s not just one thing. We?ve chatted to a few people in the industry, at various levels in the different manufacturers hierarchy and they?ve all said similar things. They?ve all said that they would have been able to deal with the challenges Brexit has thrown at them, coronavirus, new emissions legislation etc. etc. had they been isolated issues. But when you have all them things at once, it?s created the perfect storm. It?s meant manufacturers have struggled to keep dealers stocked up with bikes.
If you think of the supply of new bikes as a ?tap?, the ?bucket? that is the UK dealer network, has only got an inch of water splashing about in the bottom of it. And there are a few reasons the tap is running slow?

Lockdown

Most factories shut for a period of time last year, wherever they were in the world. And if they didn?t shut down completely, operations will have slowed down dramatically. Some factories were do...