Special Report

RITA Bureau of Transportation Statistics

May 2009

Motorcycle Trends in the United States

by C. Craig Morris, Ph.D.

SR-014

During the last decade there has been a significant increase in the number of motorcycle sales and registrations in the United States. At the same time there has 

been a shift in the demographics of motorcycle users and 

increased focus on motorcycle safety issues. This report 

focuses on the current and emerging trends involving 

street-legal (on-road and dual-purpose) motorcycles.

Vehicles

In the United States, although no universal or official definition exists, a motorcycle is a two- or three-wheel powered 

vehicle designed for on-road, off-road, or dual-purpose (onand off-road) use. On-road and dual-purpose motorcycles 

must meet federal and state certification standards and be 

licensed (registered) for use on public roadways, although 

light powered two-wheel vehicles with engines smaller 

than 50cc, known as mopeds or light scooters, as well as 

motorized bicycles, are typically allowed to operate on 

public roadways without registration. Motorcycle designs, 

technologies, and gear are expanding and evolving rapidly. 

While there is no universal standard, street-legal motorcycles in the United States are often grouped as shown in box 

A. Laws regulating motorcycle equipment requirements 

for on-highway (street-legal) or off-highway operation, and 

insurance, age, licensing, and training requirements, vary 

across the U.S. 1

Vehicle Registrations and Sales 

Because the majority of motorcycles in use must be registered for operations on public highways, registrations 

provide some indication of the number of motorcycles in 

use on public roadways each year. Motorcycle registrations in the United States have grown each of the past 10 

years, from 3,826,373 in 1997 to 6,678,958 in 2006—a 

75 percent increase overall. 2 Sales of new street-legal 

1

 Motorcycle Industry Council. 2003-2007 Statistical Annuals. Irvine, CA.

2

 Federal Highway Administration. U.S. Department of Transportation. 

State Motor-Vehicle Registrations. Washington, DC. Downloaded on Nov. 

19, 2008 from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/qfvehicles.cfm.

motorcycles grew even more sharply over the same period, 

from 260,000 in 1997 to 892,000 in 2006 (a 243 percent 

increase), but declined slightly to 885,000 in 2007 

(table 1).3, 4

Motorcycle engine sizes and motorcycle weights are 

increasing in the United States. While new sales of motorcycles with engines of 750cc or more increased 54.0 

percent in 2003 compared to 1998, and those with midsized engines of 450-749cc increased 16.6 percent, sales 

of motorcycles with smaller engine sizes decreased during the same period, especially in the midsized 350-449cc 

category, which declined 60.1 percent (table 2).

Between 2005 and 2007, sales of sport bikes (including 

supersport bikes) increased from 16 to 19 percent of all 

3

 Federal Highway Administration. U.S. Department of Transportation. 

State Motor-Vehicle Registrations. Washington, DC. Downloaded on Nov. 

19, 2008 from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/qfvehicles.cfm.

4

 Motorcycle Industry Council. Data received by personal communication 

from J. Goodwin on Sept. 30, 2008. Irvine, CA.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently reported that 

motorcyclists who ride racing style motorcycles known as “supersports” have 

driver death rates “nearly 4 times higher than motorcyclists who ride all other 

types of bikes.” Capable of extreme acceleration and speed, supersports are 

particularly popular with young riders.

Stock photo
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The range and variety of motorcycle models 

continues to grow as manufacturers identify and 

address new market niches. Although some machines blur the distinctions, in general, streetlegal machines fit into the following categories:

• Cruiser—emphasis on appearance, style, 

and sound with less emphasis on performance. 

Long profile with low saddle height, often customized. (650–1800cc; 700–1300lb)

• Dual-purpose—designed for both on- and 

off-road use. Typically lightweight, tall, and 

narrow with single-cylinder engines, long 

suspension travel, and tires suitable for on- and 

off-highway use. 

• Moped—very low-power (50cc), low-speed 

(30mph) bicycle-like design meant for cheap 

urban transportation. Unsuitable for high-speed 

roadways. 

• Motorized bicycle—bicycle with an electric 

or gasoline motor attached. Can be powered 

either by pedaling or by the attached motor. 

Unsuitable for high-speed roadways.

• Reverse trike—configured with two front 

wheels and one rear wheel, some advanced 

models lean into curves and handle much like 

conventional motorcycles. Medium to large 

engines and heavier than conventional motorcycles with similar size engines. Known by a 

variety of names, such as tadpole and backward 

trike.

• Scooter—primarily designed for use and low 

and medium speeds on urban streets. Relatively 

small in size with small-diameter wheels, their 

step-through design and general appearance 

differs significantly from full size motorcycles. 

Most are not legal on high-speed or controlled 

access roadways. Small to medium size engines 

(50–650cc).

• Sport—emphasis on handling, acceleration, speed, braking, and cornering. Styled and 

built in manner of road-racing motorcycles. 

Forward leaning riding position. (650–1100cc; 

290–350lb)

• Sport-touring—combine some of the comfort 

and amenities of touring bikes with the responsive handling of sport bikes. (1100–1800cc; 

450–650lb)

 • Supersport—built on a racing platform, but 

modified for sale to consumers. Light to medium weight with a high horsepower-to-weight 

ratio and capable of extreme acceleration and 

speed. (650–1100cc; 290–350lb)

• Touring—designed for comfort, large motorcycles with luggage and wind protection and 

amenities such as stereo, 2-way communication, cruise control, heating, etc. Heavy with 

moderate power. (1600–1800cc; 800–950lb)

• Traditional—designed as practical transportation, few styling frills or amenities. Once 

universal, they have declined in popularity 

as more specialized types were introduced. 

(125–1800cc; 200–1200lb)

• Trike—created by either grafting the front of 

a motorcycle to the back of an automobile or 

adding an automobile type axle to the rear of 

the motorcycle. Although usually licensed as 

motorcycles, they do not handle or steer like 

motorcycles. 

SOURCES: Adapted from U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Background: Motorcycle Types & Characteristics, http://www.

nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/motorcycle/00-NHT212-motorcycle/motorcycle39-41.html ; U.S. Navy Safety 

Center, http://safetycenter.navy.mil/ashore/motorvehicle/

motorcycle/Motorcycle%20Types.ppt as of Mar. 23, 2009, 

and the author.

Box A: Common Street-Legal Motorcycle Types
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Table 2: New Street-Legal U.S. Motorcycle Sales by Engine Sizes, 1998 and 2003 

Engine size

Year <125cc 125-349cc 350-449cc 450-749cc 750cc +

1998 359,600 512,200 249,200 1,061,000 3,192,000

2003 290,000 376,000 99,400 1,237,600 4,916,000

Percent change -19.4 -26.6 -60.1 16.6 54.0

SOURCE: Motorcycle Industry Council. Data received by personal communication from J. Goodwin, Sept. 30, 2008. Irvine, CA.

Table 1: U.S. On-Highway and Dual-Purpose (Street) Motorcycle

 Registrations and New Unit Sales, 1997–2007

Year Registered motorcycles Motorcycles sold (new)

1997 3,826,373 260,000

1998 3,879,450 311,000

1999 4,152,433 394,000

2000 4,346,068 490,000

2001 4,903,056 577,000

2002 5,004,156 640,000

2003 5,370,035 683,000

2004 5,780,870 750,000

2005 6,227,146 831,000

2006 6,678,958 892,000

2007 7,138,476 885,000

SOURCE: Motorcycle Industry Council. 2003-2007 Statistical Annuals. Irvine, CA; and U.S. 

Department of Transportation. State Motor-Vehicle Registrations. Washington, DC. as of Nov. 

19, 2008 from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/qfvehicles.cfm.

motorcycle sales (including off-road bikes, which are not 

distinguished from on-road motorcycles in the available 

total sales data); sales of touring bikes increased from 13 to 

15 percent; sales of dual-purpose bikes increased from 3 to 

4 percent, while sales of off-highway bikes decreased from 

27 to 22 percent of total motorcycle sales (table 3).

During the first three quarters of 2008, total new on-highway (i.e., street-legal) motorcycle sales (excluding dualpurpose motorcycles and scooters) declined 2.1 percent 

from the corresponding period in 2007, with reported sales 

of 548,747 in 2008 compared to 560,529 in 2007. Dualpurpose motorcycle sales increased 29.4 percent, with 

sales of 39,805 units during the first three quarters of 2008 

compared to 30,759 units during the same period of 2007. 

Concurrent with record fuel prices in 2008, scooter sales 

increased 50.6 percent. There were 69,227 units sold in the 

first three quarters of 2008 compared to 45,975 units sold 

in the first three quarters of 2007. Combining data for onhighway motorcycles, dual motorcycles, and scooters gives 

total sales of 657,779 during the first three quarters of 2008 

as compared to 637,263 during the same period of 2007, a 

modest 3.22 percent increase in units sold.5 

5

 WebBikeWorld. Downloaded on Nov. 20, 2008 from: http://www.

webbikeworld.com/Motorcycle-news/blog/.

Motorcycle Owner Demographics 

Survey data from the Motorcycle Industry Council on motorcycle owner demographics for the 1985 to 2003 period 

reveals a shift towards older owners. The median age of 

owners increased from 27.1 years in 1985 to 41.0 years in 

2003. From 1985 to 2003, the percentage of owners 40–49 

years old increased from 13.2 to 27.9 percent, and the percentage of owners 50+ years old increased from 8.1 to 25.1 

percent (table 4). Also, survey results for 2003 indicated 

that 90 percent of owners were male, while survey results 

for 1998 indicated that 92 percent of owners were male, 

a slight—but probably not statistically significant—trend 

consistent with growing female ownership.

Training

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) offers motorcycle rider education and training programs and courses, 

and supports governmental programs by participating in 

research and public awareness campaigns and providing 

technical assistance to state training and licensing programs.6

 The MSF reports that about 4.5 million riders have 

graduated from their rider training courses since 1974. 

The Motorcycle Industry Council cites MSF data showing 

6

 Motorcycle Safety Foundation. Downloaded on Nov. 24, 2008 from: 

http://www.msf-usa.org/.
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Table 3: Percentage of New U.S. Motorcycle Sales by Type of Motorcycle, 2005–2007

Year Traditional Cruiser Sport Touring Dual Scooter

OffHighway

2005 2 33 16 13 3 6 27

2006 1 32 18 15 3 5 25

2007 2 33 19 15 4 6 22

SOURCE: Motorcycle Industry Council. Data received by personal communication from J. Goodwin, Sept. 30, 2008. Irvine, 

CA.

Table 4: Motorcycle Owners by Age in the United

 States for Selected Years, 1985–2003

Year

Age 1985 1990 1998 2003

<18 14.9 8.3 4.1 3.7

18-24 20.7 15.5 10.6 10.8

25-29 18.7 17.1 10.9 7.6

30-34 13.8 16.4 11.5 8.9

35-39 8.7 14.3 16 10.4

40-49 13.2 16.3 24.6 27.9

50+ 8.1 10.1 19.1 25.1

Not stated 1.9 2.0 3.2 5.6

Median age 27.1 32.0 38.0 41.0

Mean age 28.5 33.1 38.1 40.2

NOTE: Data include owners of on- and off-road motorcycles.

SOURCE: Motorcycle Industry Council. Data received by personal communication from J. Goodwin, Sept. 30, 2008. Irvine, CA.

that the number of students trained in MSF courses has 

increased steadily from about 130,000 in 1996 to about 

370,000 in 2006. During the same period, there has been 

an increase in MSF course training sites from about 875 

to about 2,125. In 2006, there were just over 9,000 MSFcertified RiderCoaches (experienced motorcyclists who 

complete an intensive preparation course to become trainers) compared to only 3,500 in 1996. 

Most recently, the National Traffic Safety Division (NTSD) 

of the Transportation Safety Institute (http://www.tsi.dot.

gov/), Research and Innovative Technology Administration, 

U.S. Department of Transportation developed a course on 

motorcycle safety program coordination (MSPC) to train 

motorcycle safety program managers at the state and 

federal level on the best practices, program fundamentals, and latest strategies for effective motorcycle program 

management. The MSPC course is sponsored by the 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 

and intended to provide training to State Highway Safety 

Office program personnel and NHTSA Regional Program 

Managers to enable them to better facilitate and support 

a comprehensive motorcycle safety program in their state 

or region. The second of two pilot courses was completed 

in September 2008, with final course revisions based on 

experience with the pilots to be completed after that.

Safety

The growth in motorcycle sales and registrations in the 

United States has been accompanied by an increase in 

accidents, property losses, injuries, and fatalities involving motorcycles. As shown in table 5, from 1997 to 2007, 

the annual number of motorcyclist fatalities increased from 

2,116 to 5,154 (a 144 percent increase), and the estimated 

number of motorcyclist injuries increased from 53,000 to 

103,000 (a 94 percent increase).7 

Although motorcycle registrations and vehicle-miles traveled both increased substantially from 1997 to 2006 (the 

last year for which registration data are currently available), these exposure measures do not account for all 

the growth in motorcyclist fatalities, because during that 

period, motorcyclist fatalities increased proportionately 

more than registrations and vehicle-miles traveled. From 

1997 to 2006, annual motorcyclist fatalities increased from 

2,116 to 4,837 (a 128.6 percent increase), while fatalities 

per 100,000 registered motorcycles increased from 55.3 to 

72.3 (a 30.7 percent increase), and fatalities per 100 million 

motorcycle miles of travel increased from 21 to 39 (an 85.7 

percent increase). 

7

 National Center for Statistics and Analysis, National Highway Traffic 

Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts: 2007 Data. DOT HS 810 990. 

Washington, DC.
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Table 5. Motorcyclist Fatalities, Fatality Rates, Injuries, and Injury Rates in the United States, 1997–2007

Year Fatalities

Fatalities/100,000 

registered motorcycles

Fatalities/100 

million miles 

traveled Injuries

Injuries/100,000 

registered motorcycle

Injuries/100 

million miles 

traveled

1997 2,116 55.3 21.0 53,000 1,374 522

1998 2,294 59.1 22.3 49,000 1,262 476

1999 2,483 59.8 23.5 50,000 1,204 472

2000 2,897 66.7 27.7 58,000 1,328 551

2001 3,197 65.2 33.2 60,000 1,229 625

2002 3,270 65.4 34.2 65,000 1,293 677

2003 3,714 69.2 38.8 67,000 1,250 701

2004 4,028 69.8 39.8 76,000 1,324 755

2005 4,576 73.5 43.8 87,000 1,402 835

2006 4,837 72.3 39.0 88,000 1,311 707

2007 5,154 NA NA 103,000 NA NA

NOTE: NA = not available.

SOURCE: National Center for Statistics and Analysis, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts: 2007 Data. DOT HS 810 990. 

Washington, DC.

Also, during that same period, estimated annual motorcyclist injuries increased from 53,000 to 88,000 (a 66 percent 

increase), while estimated injuries per 100,000 registered 

motorcycles declined from 1,374 to 1,311 (a 4.8 percent decrease), and estimated injuries per 100 million motorcycle 

miles of travel increased from 522 to 707 (a 35.4 percent 

increase).

Analysis of factors accounting for increasing motorcyclist 

fatality rates is beyond the scope of this brief overview of 

motorcycle trends, but one trend of concern to public health 

and safety experts is the relaxation of motorcycle helmet 

laws (See box B).8, 9

8

 Morris, C.C. Generalized linear regression analysis of association of 

universal helmet laws with motorcyclist fatality rates. Accident Analysis 

and Prevention. 2006; 38:142-147.

9

 National Center for Statistics and Analysis, National Highway Traffic 

Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts: Motorcycle Helmet Use Laws. 

DOT HS 810 887W. Washington, DC. January 2008.

Another emerging trend of concern to public health and 

safety experts is the growing popularity of racing-style 

motorcycles known as supersports, which have high 

power-to-weight ratios and are capable of extreme acceleration and speed (160+ mph). Although designed for the 

racetrack, supersport motorcycles are marketed and sold 

to the general public and have become especially popular 

among young riders. On September 11, 2007, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a report 

showing that “motorcyclists who ride supersports have 

driver death rates per 10,000 registered motorcycles nearly 

4 times higher than motorcyclists who ride all other types 

of bikes.”10 The IIHS report also noted that among fatally 

injured motorcycle drivers, those riding supersports are the 

youngest, with an average age of 27. For both 2000 and 

2005, the death rate for riders of supersport bikes is twice 

that of sport bike riders and four times that for riders of 

other motorcycle types (See table 6, next page).

10 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Status Report. Special Issue: 

Motorcycles. Sept. 11, 2007; 42(9).

In a January 2008 special report on motorcycle helmet use 

laws, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 

(NHTSA) “encourages each state to have and enforce a 

law requiring all motorcycle operators and passengers 

to wear helmets meeting Federal Motor Vehicle Safety 

Standard (FMVSS) 218.” [9] NHTSA also notes that the 

National Transportation Safety Board recommended on 

September 11, 2007 that all states adopt such a law. The 

report cites statistics showing the safety benefits of motorcycle helmets. For example, head injuries are a leading cause of death in motorcycle crashes. Unhelmeted 

motorcyclists are three times more likely to suffer brain 

injury and 40 percent more likely to suffer a fatal head injury than helmeted motorcyclists. But the repeal of state 

universal helmet laws (which require all riders to wear 

helmets) has resulted in fewer riders wearing helmets, 

with helmet use dropping nationally from 71 percent in 

2000 to 51 percent in 2006. In some states only minors 

are required to wear helmets, but even in those states 

fewer than 40 percent of fatally injured minors were actually wearing helmets. As of January 2008, only 20 states 

required all motorcycle riders to wear helmets, while 28 

states required only those under a certain age (e.g., 18) to 

wear helmets. Two states had no helmet laws. 

Box B: Motorcycle Helmet Use Laws
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Table 6: Motorcycle Driver Deaths per 10,000 Registered Motorcycles by Type, 

 2000 v. 2005

Deaths Registered motorcycles

Deaths per 10,000 registered 

motorcycles

Type 2000 2005 2000 2005 2000 2005

Supersport 619 1,128 273,733 501,002 22.6 22.5

Sport/unclad sport 248 430 229,020 401,130 10.8 10.7

Touring 256 521 480,314 807,291 5.3 6.5

Cruiser/standard 976 1,583 1,752,377 2,778,348 5.6 5.7

Other/unknown 442 388 829,944 893,567 5.3 4.3

Total 2,541 4,050 3,565,388 5,381,338 7.1 7.5

SOURCE: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Status Report. Special Issue: Motorcycles. Sept. 11, 2007; 42(9).

About This Report For Related BTS Data and Publications: www.bts.gov

This report was prepared by C. Craig Morris, Ph.D., 

Mathematical Statistician, Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics. BTS is a component of the Department 

of Transportation’s Research and Innovative 

Technology Administration.

For questions about this or other BTS reports, call 

1-800-853-1351, email answers@bts.gov or visit 

www.bts.gov.