Another motorcycle manufacturer has ridden out of 2009, declaring the year a financial success.

While in years gone by success may have been defined by doubling the previous years sales numbers, with the challenging economy slowing the slide is considered just as highly.

It was no surprise then when BMW Motorrad took a moderate drop of 14.1% in sales as a year worth noting. Last year 87,306 BMW motorcycles were delivered to customers compared to the 101,685 that found a home the year before.

BMW Motorrad has said the company is happy it has not only reached the target it set itself, but also achieved the second-lowest decline in sales amongst the competition.
 
The news comes with needed perspective. In 2007 the world market for motorcycles 500 cubic centimeters and larger was approximately 1.5 million vehicles, but it shrank to about 900,000 units by the end of 2009. The sales are a drop of around 40% in two years, with 30% of that fall coming in 2009 alone.

BMW Motorrad is proud to point out that despite these downward trends in the motorcycle markets the German manufacturer was able to grow in the European markets, Great Britain and Eastern Europe, the Asian markets of Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, as well as in the Middle East and Brazil.

In Germany, which is still the biggest market for BMW Motorrad, 15,833 BMW motorcycles were registered compared to 18,112 the year before, representing a drop of 12.6% narrowly beating the average market fall of 14.5%.
 
Italy continues to be the second largest for BMW Motorrad where a total of 13,207 BMW motorcycles were registered compared to 15,342 the year before. The German motorcycle manufacturer only experienced a decline of 13.9% compared to the market wide fall of 20.0 %.

As for many motorcycle manufacturers, the United States proved to be the biggest challenge. The market as a whole decreased by 41.6 %, but BMW Motorrad manage to enjoy enough sales in its third largest market with a relatively small drop of 22.5%.

Which BMW Motorrad motorcycle led the pack? In 2009 once again, the most successful model overall was the large travel enduro BMW R 1200 GS along with its sibling model, the R 1200 GS Adventure. The  F 800 GS and the F 800 R both managed to catch some official BMW Motorrad eyes with their sales.

The company is looking forward to the New Year, screaming into 2010 with their new S 1000 RR. BMW Motorrad has a supersports volume model in its program for a full season for the first time, with some 2,300 orders already having been placed by the time of the market launch on December 6th 2009.

And as of today BMW customers will benefit from the model revision of the new BMW 1200 GS / Adventure and BMW R 1200 RT which are to be launched with the new DOHC flat twin engines.