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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.

Good news from the Bavarians, as BMW Motorrad reports that 2019 was the company’s best sales year…ever (again).

According to the German company’s tallies, BMW Motorrad sold 175,162 motorcycles and scooters last year, a bump of 5.8% over the figures from 2018 (165,566 units).

As expected, Germany remains the primary market for BMW Motorrad, with 26,292 units sold last year (up 10.4% from 2018). Crunching the math further, Germany accounts for roughly 15% of BMW’s two-wheeled sales.

The rest of Europe was strong for BMW Motorrad as well, with the European market up 7% overall for BMW – France (17,300 units), Italy (15,580 units), Spain (12,607 units) and the Great Britain/Ireland (9,611 units).

While news of the Ducati Superleggera V4 is breaking the internet right now, other headlines are also coming out of Bologna, as Ducati has released its 2019 sales figures.

Tallying a total of 53,183 motorcycles delivered to customers worldwide, Ducati managed to beat the 53,004 units from 2018 – an increase of 0.34% in worldwide sales, for those who are counting.

Holding that figure back though was the brand’s progress in the United States, with the American market dropping close to 2% compared to last year, with 7,682 motorcycles sold last year.

Official data on the US motorcycle industry for 2019 isn’t out yet, but Asphalt & Rubber has seen preliminary numbers, encompassing the first 11 months of the year on new motorcycle sales, and those numbers show that the USA continues to have essentially zero growth.

According to the documents supplied to us by our Bothan spies, from January to November of 2019, the US motorcycle industry grew a whooping 0.1%, with most of the major brands posting moderate single-digit losses for the year on new bike sales.

While we wait for the New Year and ponder what has occurred in the last 365 days, the folks at Honda certainly have a milestone to remember 2019 by – this was the year that they built their 400 millionth motorcycle. That’s a lot.

This marker comes in Honda’s 70th year of making motorcycles (the Honda Dream D-Type went on sale in 1949), and it is an astounding achievement for the Japanese brand.

You probably saw the headline yesterday, the one where the stock market took a nosedive and there was talk of doom and gloom for our economic future.

For those that don't know, the news behind the news is the fact that the bond market saw an inverted yield curve between the 2-year and 10-year treasury bonds. This is a fancy way of saying that investors expect to make more money in the short-term than the long-term, and this opinion reflects where our economy is headed.

For the last 50 years, an inverted yield curve has signaled the start of an economic recession, and while that is a scary thing to think about (we would all rather have a booming economy), the boom/bust cycle is common in economics and can often be mild.

Of course, what is different here is that the last recession that the United States experienced was the worst recession of all time, and in many ways we are still feeling its effects, whether those are physical or merely psychological.

While I will let the financial publications debate what kind of recession we are headed into, if they even agree that a recession is looming in front of us, this news does spark some interesting conversation for the motorcycle industry. Let me explain.

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While motorcycles sales in the United States continue to slip, sales in Europe continue to grow. I use that line almost every time I write about this subject – largely because it’s the truth.

The fact is that there is a fundamental difference about what is going on in the European markets versus what is going on here in the United States, and it shows in the sale data.

Reporting on the first half of the year so far, the European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (ACEM) says that the European motorcycle market is up 9.1%, compared to the first-half of 2018.

The 2019 model year is looking good for Ducati, with the Italian brand reporting a 5% sales increase in the first quarter of this year, over the same time period in 2018.

In total, Ducati sold 12,541 motorcycles in Q1 2019, compared to the 11,949 units it moved in Q1 2018, with most segments from the Italian manufacturer showing growth.

That growth was highlighted with strong sales for Hypermotard 950, though it is bookended with the superbike segment, which saw a noticeable drop (13.5%) at the start of this year.

What you are looking at is the most powerful motorcycle ever created by Triumph. It has 168hp, and makes 163 lbs•ft of peak torque from its three-cylinder engine. A massive 2,458cc of fire and pistons, this rocket ship isn’t a new Daytona or Speed Triple, instead it is the new Triumph Rocket 3 TFC.

There is perhaps a commentary to be made that the most powerful Triumph ever created by Hinckley is in fact a cruiser, or that such a bike is the second machine to get the “Triumph Factory Custom” treatment from the British brand.

Such is the state of affairs from the marque that brought us the original production streetfighter. But nonetheless, the Triumph Rocket 3 TFC offers the cruiser-loving realm a machine that boasts some impressive performance figures.

If you have a 2019 model year Triumph Speed Twin, you might want to pay attention to this recall from Triumph Motorcycles America. It affects 726 motorcycles, and relates to the radiator hose routing.

According to Triumph, an internal audit discovered that improper routing on the 2019 Triumph Speed Twin’s coolant expansion hose may cause it to contact the exhaust header pipe, which can damage the hose, and result in a coolant leak near the rear tire.

If the coolant spills near the rear tire, it can create a loss of traction for the motorcycle, which could lead to the motorcycle crashing.

Another day, and another factory MotoGP team debut. This week’s entry is actually a two-fer from the KTM camp, as we see in their race livery both the factory-back Red Bull KTM team debut (Pol Espargaro & Johann Zarco), as well as the factory-supported KTM Tech3 squad (Hafizh Syahrin & Miguel Oliveira).

KTM will be looking to make big steps this year in the MotoGP Championship, as the team stalled on its progress last year. This is part of the reason for a two-pronged approach in the paddock, and for the Tech3 outfit getting substantial support and involvement in the development of the KTM RC16 race bike.