Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto fuelled the growth, both notching up record sales. For Hero Honda, the largest bike maker, sales in the domestic market moved up 25.7 per cent to 25,57,385 units from 20,33,649 units in 2003-04.
For Bajaj Auto, the growth was even higher at 38 per cent as it sold 13,44,922 units in fiscal 2004-05 against 9,73,307 units in the previous year, as per figures released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
New model launches, easy finance and good discounts spurred more and more people to buy motorcycles. However, the discounts added to the pressure of the bike makers, already reeling due to rise in input costs.
A notable player to join the Indian bike market this fiscal was Japan's Honda Motor Co, through its fully-owned Indian subsidiary Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India.
Even as it still holds a 26 per cent stake in Hero Honda, HMSI made an entry into the Indian bike market in September last year with the launch of its 150-cc 'Unicorn'. Though still absent from the big number segments, it sold 64,911 units by March 31, 2005.
It needs to be seen what strategy the bike maker adopts as it goes forward. At the Unicorn launch last year, senior HMSI officials had said the company would look at all segments, including the entry-level and the executive segments, the largest in the Indian motorcycle market.
Notably, the growth of Hero Honda, Bajaj and HMSI could not be replicated by other companies, or rather they failed to protect their market share. Players like TVS Motor and Yamaha India saw numbers fall, SIAM said.
For TVS, the country's third-biggest bike maker, sales fell 6.1 per cent to 6,40,707 units in 2004-05 from 6,82,698 units in the previous year. The bike maker has many-a-times blamed the dip in sales of two-stroke models for the drop.
Yamaha India's sales went down 8 per cent to 2,12,985 units. The bike maker, a fully-owned subsidiary of Japan's Yamaha Motor Co, has announced plans to increase its sales in India. For Royal Enfield, sales went up marginally at 27,999 units against 27,008 units in 2003-04.
Other players like LML and Kinetic both saw notable drop in numbers. LML, which has recently announced a major restructuring plan, saw sales going down by as much as 55.8 per cent to finish 2004-05 at 71,151 units against 1,61,166 units in 2003-04.
For Kinetic, the fall was 23.4 per cent as its sales stood at 39,819 units against 52,010 units in 2003-04.
To improve its prospects, the company announced in March that it was exploring and evaluating possibilities of strategic tie-ups, joint ventures and has been considering various options for short term/long term financial resources from domestic/international market at appropriate time.