The local motorcycle market continued to grow last month, the starting season for bike buying, said AP Honda Co sales director Teerapat Chivapong. Total motorcycle registrations in October climbed 10% year-on-year to 138,437. The rise was propelled by a positive reaction to fuel-injection systems in family category bikes. Their sales grew 14% to 71,695 units for a 52% market share.

Registrations of family-sport models slumped 13% year-on-year to 3,434 units for a 2% market share. Automatic transmission registrations increased 7% to 61,479 units for a 44% market share. Sport type registrations rose 8% to 1,152 units for a 1% market share.

Other remaining categories recorded registrations of 677 units in October, a 110% year-on-year jump.

Bike registrations in the 10 months to October were 1.46 million units, a 7% year-on-year increase. The total included 753,842 family model registrations, which surged 9% for a 52% market share, and 651,462 automatic-transmission motorcycles, up 5% for a 45% market share.

Family-sport model registrations fell 9% year-on-year to 40,650 units, a 3% market share, and sport models edged up 4% to 9,736, a 1% market share. Other categories shot up 93% to 6,353 units.

Honda continued to dominate the market. Its sales in the first 10 months were up 3.9% year-on-year to 997,427 units, although its market share slipped from 70% to 68%. Wave 100 and Click were the company's best selling models.

Yamaha sales leapt 19.1% to 371,000 units and its market share rose from 23% to 25%. Fino was the company's best selling model.

Suzuki sold only 68,199 units over the period, a drop from 69,443 units, but maintained market share at 5%. Kawasaki's sales were up to 8,538 units from 6,230 units.

JRD, the locally produced Malaysian model, saw its sales slide to 3,872 units from 5,187 in the same period last year. Sales of Platinum, the locally built Chinese brand, sank to 2,125 units from 2,998 units. Those of remaining brands went up to 9,944 units from 9,486 units.