MotorbikesToday.com

If there was anyone still in doubt about the parlous state of the UK bike market, then can I suggest that they haven't been to this year's motorcycle show at the NEC. Seemingly mis-named as The Motorcycle and Scooter Show, the only scooters present came from a small Taiwanese manufacturer, and there was precious little in the way of motorcycles either. If this trend keeps up, then next year you may well be going to the 2010 Motorcycle Clothing and Accessory Show as these stands are now outnumbering the bikes by around 20 to 1.

I wasn't too surprised when I found out a couple of months ago that "Big-H" wasn't going to make it, as their financial woes have been well publicised on the F1-circuits and by the people of Swindon; and I suppose that the recent lay-offs at Milwaukee could mean that we wouldn't be seeing much of the eponymous American V-Twin. In fact there were none, although Victory put on a good display for those affectionados of two large cylinders and thick chromium plate.

That just left Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha for those devotees of rising-sun technology, BMW and KTM for the euro-engineers, and tucked away in one corner - Ducati, with a stand so small that it could be tucked away in the back of a Transit with both of the Hypomotards that was all they'd managed to bring. I kid you not. But perhaps the biggest surprise was the size of the Royal Enfield stand - and it was busy! However the organisers had tucked them away in a secondary hall so as not to "contaminate" the newer technology on show, what there was of it!

But busy was one thing that the show itself wasn't. OK, I went on a weekday this year and it's always quieter then than at the weekends, but honestly I've been to recent shows when there've been more people there on a press day morning. Something that was borne out by the fact that we had no problems in getting a table to sit down and eat our lunch and there were virtually no queues for the food and drink stalls at any time. In fact walking around the show was so easy that it was unreal, and by 4.00pm it was so quiet that you could have turned the aisles into bowling lanes.

So this is what a recession looks like for the motorcycle trade, and unfortunately there's no government-sponsored "scrappage" scheme to boost bike sales and safeguard jobs, like the one created by the car lobby that's helped to prevent all those lay-offs at Peugeot, Renault, Volkswagen, BMW, Opel and Nissan.

But on the plus-side, your old motorbike could soon become such a rare beast that it will attract a premium price at auction, as though it was a Brough Superior, a Scott Squirrel, or a Vincent Black Shadow.

Dream on.