2025’s best-selling motorbikes

January may not typically be the best time for being out on a bike but does at least offer some time to pause and reflect on the sales trends from the previous year, and what that might tell us about what’s hot and happening in the two-wheeled world for the year ahead.
To those ends the freely available sales stats from trade body the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) break down the best-selling bikes by type and engine capacity, helping identify trends and tastes among modern-day riders through the motorcycles they’re buying. True to say the bottom line is they’re not buying as many bikes as before, overall UK sales down by a fifth and dipping below 100,000. Interestingly while electric cars are really taking off the same can’t be said of battery-powered bikes, with just 3,000-odd total sales and most of those in the sub-125cc category. But it’s not all doom and gloom. The industry is putting a brave face on things, and there are plenty of exciting new bikes to look forward to in 2026 from manufacturers as traditional and familiar as BSA to fresh and new like Chinese newcomers Voge, QJMotor and more.

The overall sales slump in 2025 has skewed the stats sufficiently to promote adventure bikes to the most popular category of all, more so even than the traditionally big-selling 125cc scooter class. And the best-selling of all is, once again, the BMW R 1300 GSA in a continued sign of its dominance in this field. The GSA is, of course, the bigger-tanked and more rugged version of the GS, itself a brilliant all-rounder thanks to its reduced weight and improved tech over its predecessors. The GSA adds style, range and even more tech, most obviously the new optional semi-automatic transmission option. If you want versatility, prestige, equipment and proven all-rounder ability, the GSA remains the one. In 2025 it was the class leader in seven of 12 months, the GS accounting for a further three months with only the Honda NC750X and impressive Voge DS800X proving capable of breaking the BMW deadlock.

Previously the best-selling powered two-wheeler category of all thanks to the volumes of affordable A1-class scooters it includes, the 125 category was for the first time in a decade out-sold by big adventure bikes. It’s still a popular category, though, and typically a two-way split between the dominant Honda PCX 125 and Yamaha NMAX 125. 2025 was Honda’s year, the PCX topping the charts for 10 months, the remaining two led by its NSC110 little brother in what proved to be a good year for the Japanese brand. As ever, the PCX has a lot to recommend it thanks to proven Honda quality and ease of use, smart styling, tech like Bluetooth connectivity and start-stop and more. Popularity can be a double-edged sword, though, and the PCX’s desirability also made it the most stolen two-wheeler in the UK!

While already established in Japan and other markets 2025 was a breakthrough year for Honda’s cute, affordable and endearingly basic single-cylinder roadster. Which is easy to understand, given the combination of typical Honda quality, decent performance (all considered) and an impressively affordable price. It’s all the more impressive given the range of talented rivals it’s up against, these including the popular Royal Enfield HNTR 350, Triumph Speed 400 and reborn BSA Bantam to name just a few. This generation of affordable and fashionable retros has helped make the modern classic category the third most popular of all in the MCIA stats, only the Triumph and BSA able to break Honda’s dominance with a month apiece topping the charts themselves.

The ‘naked’ category is another of the MCIA’s somewhat arbitrary classifications, given it basically wraps up non-retro, unfaired roadsters of any engine capacity. For all that one bike stood out as the clear winner and it was, once again, a Honda, in this case the CB1000 Hornet. A deserved hit for its combination of 150+ horsepower thrills, all-rounder ability and unbelievably punchy starting price of just over £9,000 for the base version (and a little over £10,000 for the blinged-up SP), the Hornet was one of the year’s stand-out bikes. Honda’s domination of the sector was underlined by further success for the CB1000’s smaller CB750 Hornet little brother and beginner-friendly CB125R and CB125F.

When it comes to dedicated, large-capacity touring machines two bikes stand out in the MCIA’s figures, namely Honda’s Africa Twin derived NT1100 and the latest version of BMW’s perennial boxer twin tourer, the RT. For 2025 we got the lighter and fitter all-new R 1300 RT, which is littered with impressive tech and sophisticated features and was best-seller in the MCIA’s charts for six of 2025’s 12 months. It was run a very close second by the NT1100, though. True, the Honda isn’t as glamorous, sophisticated or stylish as the BMW but, following a range of updates for 2025, is incredibly effective, impressively comfortable and also decent value. Nor is it lacking in tech, with options like a DCT automatic gearbox or electronic suspension if you want them.

Aside from categorising motorcycles by type the MCIA sales figures also rank according to cubic capacity, split into sub-50cc (mopeds), 125cc, 126-500cc, 501-750cc, 751-1,000cc and 1000cc+. Which affords opportunity to include two UK best-sellers which might otherwise get missed. The first of these is the best-selling 125. If we just went for the PCX125 scooter we’d overlook popular 125cc motorcycles like the sporty Yamaha R125 and Honda CB125R, both of which did well. But the most popular of all is the Chinese-built Lexmoto LXR125, which was the best-selling ‘sports’ machine overall for six months of 2025. Put that down to its mix of sporty style, class-regulated 15 horsepower power, decent spec and, above all, a starting price of around half that of the Yamaha. And that, when you’re starting out in motorcycling as a teenager, is a big deal indeed.

Another best-seller that doesn’t neatly fit into any of the MCIA’s traditional categories, the Honda NC750X proved another hit for the brand. This low-revving, affordable, semi-automatic, adventure-styled machine may be slightly oddball. But updated again for 2025 and featuring massive underseat storage, easy manners, great economy, decent performance and about as much convenience as you can get on two wheels it leveraged this and its affordable starting price to lead the most popular 501-750cc class for all but two months in 2025’s sales’ figures.