KTM is reorganizing quickly in its bankruptcy proceedings, BMW Motorrad reports record sales numbers for 2024, while Harley-Davidson slumps and Honda continues to soar, rumors swirl around a new Royal Enfield Himalayan 650, and Chinese moto brands continue to develop their adventure lines—all in this moto news roundup for February.
KTM Holds €2.9 Billion in Debt, Sells Back Its Stake in MV Agusta
KTM 790 Adventure
Struggling Austrian powersports giant KTM and its parent company Pierer Mobility AG are churning their way through bankruptcy proceedings as KTM seeks to restructure nearly €3 billion in debt owed to its employees and a wide range of creditors. As part of the housecleaning, Italian OEM MV Agusta is buying back the controlling 50.1 percent stake in the company that KTM purchased just last year. Amazingly, MV Agusta seems to have dodged Pierer Mobility’s financial woes, as it sold 4,000 motorcycles in 2024, up 116 percent from 2023, including its new Enduro Veloce ADV bike, released just last year. KTM’s biggest liability at the moment is its unsold inventory of over 250,000 bikes idling in warehouses and dealerships worldwide. The MV Agusta sale brings into question the future of KTM’s other core satellite brands: Husqvarna and GasGas. Will buyers come back to KTM if it continues to teeter on the brink of insolvency?
Harley-Davidson Slumps, BMW and Honda Soar
Another big-name manufacturer in a fight for its life is Harley-Davidson. Last year H-D moved just over 140,000 units, down 17 percent over 2023, and it saw a huge 53 percent dip in sales in Q4 alone. Its projections for 2025 were equally grim, the Milwaukee-based company hoping for no more than a 5 percent drop in revenue. The $21,000 Pan America adventure bike has not sold in the numbers that Harley hoped for over the long term, even after good sales performance out of the gate in 2021. No all-new models were announced for FY25.
2024 Honda Transalp
On the other side of the spectrum, BMW Motorrad sold over 210,000 motorcycles in 2024, a record for the Bavarian bike baron. The big numbers were driven in particular by the middle-weight F-class Gelände/Straße models (the F800 GS, F 900 GS, and F900 GS Adventure) as well as the big profit margin boxer-twin R1300 GS and GS Adventure. Honda also posted some eye-opening financials for 2024, with Ride Apart reporting that it now owns 40 percent of the global motorcycle market, and Honda claims that it will build some 20 million bikes by the time its financial year closes in March.
New Bantamweight ADV Bikes from India and China
CFMoto 700MT
Manufacturers from India and China are continuing to expand their adventure bike lineups. Motorcycle News reports (including spy shots) that Royal Enfield seems to be developing a 650 version of its recently redesigned and widely praised Himalayan—RE’s 648cc inline twin-cylinder has been a stalwart in its street bikes for some time. Even though the liquid-cooled 450cc single in the 2024/2025 Himalayan is a huge improvement over the old bike, adding a larger capacity model to the Himalayan range seems like a no-brainer. Moto Morini’s Xcape ADV launched in North America last year as a 450, but a 700cc version also appears to be on the horizon, ditto for CFMoto, who is looking to add a 700cc ADV to slot in between its Ibex 450 and Ibex 800 models.
Images: BMW Motorrad, KTM, Honda, CFMoto
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