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FOCUS PSB Metric bikes 26 • October 6, 2014 • Powersports Business www.PowersportsBusiness.com Honda tops Japanese bike data this summer on KBB.com BY LISA PELISSIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Interest in Japanese motorcycles has remained steady and consistent over time. The percent- age of Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com web hits per manufacturer was almost identical for summer 2014 versus summer 2013. Here's a look at other data points revealed by the study of Q3 metric bike interest on KBB.com. Honda received the most interest during the summer, acquiring 36 percent of web inter- est for Japanese bikes overall. Yamaha came in a distant second with 23 percent of KBB.com web hits for Japanese bikes. This trend is reversed when viewing the Japanese sport bikes only. Kawasaki and Suzuki become the leaders, receiving 32 percent and 24 percent of the KBB.com web hits, respectively. Honda dominated interest among Japa- nese standard/cruiser motorcycles and Japa- nese touring motorcycles, receiving 41 percent interest on KBB.com for the former categories and 56 percent for the latter category. Yamaha also loomed large in these cat- egories, with 25 percent interest from Japanese standard/cruiser motorcycles and 28 percent from Japanese touring motorcycles. Almost every top 10 list of particular bikes is dominated by one particular motorcycle family. For the small standard/cruiser motorcy- cles, the Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic took six of the top 10 spots, challenged only by the Honda Rebel 250, which held three spots. The Honda Shadow family dominated the mid-size Japanese standard/cruiser category, taking nine of the top 10 positions. A sole Suzuki, the 2006 C50, prevented the Honda Shadow from a clean sweep of the list. Honda also generated the most interest in the large Japanese standard/cruiser category, taking eight of the top 10 spots on the list. The Yamaha V-Star Classic with the 1,100cc engine took the remaining two positions. The small-displacement Kawasaki Ninja demonstrated its popularity by seizing eight of the top 10 spots of the most-researched Japa- nese sport bikes under 600cc. Honda's newer CBR250R challenged Kawasaki's dominance by taking the remaining two spots on the list. The mid-size Japanese sport bikes (600cc- 800cc) category's top 10 motorcycles was one of the few categories in which one particu- lar bike was not dominant. The list was split among 600cc sport bikes from all four of the large Japanese manufacturers, with Honda having three models on the list, Suzuki and Yamaha each with three models, and Kawasaki with one. The larger Japanese sport bikes (over 800cc) category also saw a fair split between top manufacturers, although all of the bikes on the top 10 most researched list are 1,000cc. Honda dominated the top 10 most researched Japanese touring bikes list, with its Gold Wing taking eight of the top 10 spots. Yamaha claimed the remaining two positions with its V-Star Touring series. In general, KBB.com web hits for power- sports vehicles were down for summer 2014 from summer 2013. Interest in newer model-year vehicles was centered on smaller displacement bikes. The only models in the top 10 lists newer than the 2009 model year were motorcycles in the 250cc to 300cc range. The 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 300 and Ninja 300 SE retained the first and second positions as the most-researched 2014 Japanese on-road motorcycles, even with declining interest for August when compared to July 2014. There was a big gap in interest between the top three 2014 Japanese on-road motorcycles and the others on the top 20 list. On average, interest in the top 20 2014 Japanese on-road motorcycles was up 8 percent. Fifteen of the top 20 most-researched 2014 Japanese on-road motorcycles were sport bikes. The remaining five were standard/cruiser. No touring bikes were on the list. Only one Suzuki bike, the GSX-R750, appears on the top 20 list of 2014 Japanese on- road motorcycles. Curiously, this has not been Pre-owned metric bikes hold steady Q3 interest See KBB, Page 29 The 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 300 (shown) and Ninja 300 SE retained the first and second positions as the most- researched 2014 Japanese on-road motorcycles, even with declining interest for August over July 2014, on KBB.com.