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Episode 143 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one takes us on another trip down memory lane, as we look at the 2015 MotoGP Championship.

Of note, this is our second part, to this two-part series on the 2015 season, and it focuses on the latter half of the championship schedule. You can catch Part 1 of the series, here.

As such, this show sees David Emmett, Steve English, and Neil Morrison on the microphones talking about this epic season.

Episode 142 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one takes us on another trip down memory lane, as we look at the 2015 MotoGP Championship. With so much happening in the grand prix paddock in 2015, our look back will come in two parts, the first of which is this episode.

A special year for us, 2015 was the first year that all three of our Paddock Pass Podcast hosts were in the GP paddock at the same time. It was also the first year of the Paddock Pass Podcast itself.

As such, this show sees David Emmett, Steve English and, Neil Morrison on the microphones talking about this epic season.

2020 sees the start of a new decade (convention has it that decades are zero-based, going from 0-9, so please, numerical pedants, just play along here), and if there is one thing we have learned from the period between 2010 and 2019, it is that a lot can change.

Not just politically and socially, but in racing too. So now seems a good time to take a look back at the start of the previous decade, and ponder what lessons might be learned for the decade to come.

It is hard to remember just how tough a place MotoGP was in 2010. The world was still reeling from the impact of the Global Financial Crisis caused when the banking system collapsed at the end of 2008.

That led to a shrinking grid, with Kawasaki pulling out at the end of 2008 (though the Japanese factory was forced to continue for one more season under the Hayate banner, with one rider, Marco Melandri), and emergency measures aimed at cutting costs.

That meant that in 2010, MotoGP had only 17 permanent riders on the grid, from four different manufacturers. Hondas filled the grid, supplying six of the riders with RC212Vs, while Ducati were providing five riders, including one to the newly joined Aspar team.

Yamaha supplied four bikes then, as now, though the Tech3 Yamaha team received satellite bikes, rather than the factory spec M1s the Petronas team has now. And Suzuki still had two bikes on the grid, though 2010 was the last year that happened. A year later, they were down to a single bike, and in 2012, they were gone.

Zero Motorcycles is recalling a number of models from its 2015 lineup, all for issues with DC-DC converter, which takes direct current electricity from one voltage and converts it to a different voltage.

According to the recall documents, when under high-power demands the DC-DC converter can suffer from insufficient output, which in-turn can cause the anti-lock brake system (ABS) not to function properly.

Since the failure of the ABS can lead to an increase in the risk of a crash, Zero Motorcycles has issued this recall, and while this recall affects the SR, S, DS, and FX motorcycle lines, only 96 motorcycles are actually being recalled under this notice.

National crash statistics for 2015 have just been released, and overall, the news is not good. After decades of seeing road fatalities drop, 2015 saw an 7.2% increase in fatalities across all vehicles.

The increase comes primarily from an increase in miles driven by Americans, but the data also shows an increase in the number of crashes per mile driven, suggesting that the trend isn’t just from drivers being on the road more.

For motorcyclists, 2015 was especially bad, with motorcycle crash fatalities increasing by 8.3%, though motorcycle crash injuries were down 4.3% last year.

Ducati North America is reporting a record year for sales, selling 12,132 motorcycles in 2015 – this number includes all Ducati sales in the USA (9,674 units, +10%), Canada (1,458 units, +12%), and Mexico (1,003 units, +85%).

The news is perhaps not surprising, since Ducati sales grew globally by 22% last year, for a total of 54,800 motorcycle sold in 2015.

Ducati North America’s numbers continue a six-year trend of solid sales growth, with last year’s sales being fueled primarily by the Ducati Scrambler.

BMW Motorrad set another record year of sales in 2015, seemingly along with all the European motorcycle manufacturers (Husqvarna, Ducati, & KTM). BMW quotes that 136,963 motorcycles and maxi-scooters were sold last year, and thankfully the Bavarian brand is fairly forthright with its sales data.

This allows us to make some interesting points of observation about BMW Motorrad, the most potent of which is the brand’s success in the sport bike market, which accounts for 16% of all BMW motorcycles sold last year.

Equally interesting is the fact that BMW’s boxer-engine machines, the R-Series, accounts for over half of BMW Motorrad’s sales (see the chart above) – a strong signal to the power of BMW’s iconic past.

In case you missed it, KTM as a company is doing extremely well, selling over 180,000 units last year. KTM the company now has two brand of motorcycles under its roof though: its namesake, and then also the Swedish brand of Husqvarna.

The latest report from Mattighofen suggests that the sales success of KTM isn’t due solely to the KTM brand, and that Husqvarna had a very strong 2015 as well.

As such, Husqvarna is reporting that it sold 21,513 units in 2015, an increase of 31% over last year’s figure of 16,337. This means that 2015 was another record for Husqvarna, the best in the company’s 112 year history.

After hearing of the sales growth from BMW Motorrad USA for 2015, we speculated that we would soon here from the German marque on its yearly results internationally, and it seems we were right.

As such, BMW Motorrad is happy to report its fifth consecutive all-time best sales year, with 2015 seeing 136,963 motorcycles and maxi-scooters sold by the German brand. That figure is an impressive 10.9% gain over the sales from 2014, and BMW shows no signs of slowing down.

News from BMW Motorrad shows that the Germans did quite well in the United States last year, selling 16,330 units in 2015. That figure is up 9.3% from the 14,945 units that BMW Motorrad sold in 2014, in the USA.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, BMW Motorrad USA’s best model was its liter-bike offering, the BMW S1000RR, which accounted for 13.3% of BMW’s total sales in the USA – roughly 2,170 units.

The S1000RR has often rivaled the BMW R1200GS for the top-billing in the US market, with the R1200GS Adventure taking 12.2% of BMW sales and the R1200GS with 11.5%, (roughly 2,000 units and 1,900 units, respectively).