The city of Sheffield was once famous for its massive steel industry, but with the decline of its main manufacturing business in more recent times, it is the staging of a round of the Indoor Trial World Championship that has once again put the South Yorkshire destination back on the international map.

Saturday 3rd January 2009 will mark the fourteenth edition of this great event, with the majority of the previous competitions hosted in Sheffield having also been part of the World series in its various disguises over the last ten years or so.

Sheffield arena has the honour of opening the 2009 SPEA FIM Indoor Trial World Championship, which will mark the start of a new era for this specialised sport now under the full control of motorcycling’s World governing body, namely the FIM. Seven of the World’s best trials riders have been selected to do battle this time around, two of whom will be flying the home flag.

Whilst Spanish sensation Toni Bou – Repsol Montesa HRC, who comfortably took the 2008 Indoor World title, may start as the obvious favourite, it will be Yorkshire’s own Dougie Lampkin – Beta who is sure to receive the loudest greeting from the patriotic and potentially eight thousand strong crowd.

Despite having not recorded a victory inside his favourite stadium in more recent years, Lampkin remains the undisputed ‘King Of Sheffield’, having previously won this competition on no less than eight separate occasions during his great reign of the sport.

Dougie finished as runner up to Bou at the last edition of this event, and will be hoping to go one better in what will probably be Lampkin’s last ever appearance both at Sheffield and in the World Indoor trials series as a whole.

Twenty-one year old Michael Brown - Sherco is the other British rider looking to make the most of his home advantage and to follow up his fantastic Sheffield debut in late 2007. Add to this, the usual candidates of Adam Raga – Gas Gas, Albert Cabestany – Sherco and Takahisa Fujinami – Repsol Montesa HRC and then you can understand why Sheffield 2009, will be a opening battle to be remembered.

SPEA FIM INDOOR TRIAL WORLD CHAMPIONHIP 2009

Round 1 – Sheffield – England

03 January - Saturday

Round 2 – Marseille - France

24 January – Saturday

Round 3 – Barcelona – Spain

08 February – Sunday - TBC

Round 4 – Bolzano – Italy

26 February – Thursday

Round 5 – Milan – Italy

07 March – Saturday - TBC

Round 6 – Madrid – Spain

14 March – Saturday

2008 Final championship standings:

1: Bou 48, 2: Raga 35,

3: Cabestany 35, 4: Fujinami 27,

5: Fajardo 20, 6: Lampkin 14,

Following a solid October when motorcycle registrations were up by 4 per cent on the same month last year, registrations were 16 per cent down last month, according to figures from the Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCI).

A total of 7,517 mopeds, scooters and motorcycles were registered in November, compared with 8,947 in the same month last year. Over the first 11 months of the year, registrations are just 2.4 per cent down, with 133,009 new powered two-wheelers (PTWs) registered.

While obviously not immune to the economic downturn, this still compares favourably with the UK car industry which last week announced that new car registrations fell 36.8 per cent in November, and 10.7 per cent year to date.

Most categories suffered declines with the Yamaha XC 125 scooter as the month’s biggest seller. The market-leading manufacturer in November was Yamaha with 1,079 registrations, followed by Honda (858) and Suzuki (670).

MCI chief executive Steve Kenward said: “This is a disappointing although not unexpected result, and we are renewing the call on government and local authorities, to support the industry’s ability to provide affordable and practical transport solutions in these difficult economic times.

“Dealers, suppliers and manufacturers are braced for a volatile and challenging 2009, but PTW use is more relevant than ever and must be viewed as a serious and pratical alternative to the use of cars and public transport. PTWs are part of the solution to the problems of congestion and pollution and should not be ignored or treated as an afterthought. “

Kenward added: “The motorcycle industry is still holding up very well, and I am encouraged by the upbeat mood of the International Motorcycle Show at the NEC last week.”

The Carole Nash International Scooter and Motorcycle Show ended yesterday, with attendance similar to last year.

The increasing interest in motorcycling was also highlighted in the Department for Transport Compendium of Motorcycling Statistics, released last week. The report says that the number of people taking the motorcycling test increased to 88,000 in 2007/08, the highest number since 2000/01. According to the DfT, there are approximately 1.26 million licensed motorcycles in Britain traveling around 5.6 billion vehicle kilometers in 2006. In 2007, 45 per cent of the 146,000 machines registered for the first time, had engine capacities of up to 150cc.

The first important step in your used motorcycles search is to create a list of the features that you are looking for in your motorcycle, according to smartycycle.com - the online portal for used motorcycle trade.

Tampa,November 2008 -“Create a list that holds all of the mandatory items and accessories that you want in your motorcycle. Create a separate list that holds all of the things that you want, but do not necessarily need, in and on your motorcycle. Thirdly, create a list of the things that you do not want to see on your motorcycle; the things that will turn you off from a motorcycle may help you determine what motorcycles you actually check out”, says Mr. Tanesha Zahra of www.smartycycle.com

When asked about the importance of online trade portals for used motorcycles, Mr.Tanesha said “The important step to go through when looking for used motorcycles is to use the Internet to do research on used motorcycles. By researching online, you may be able to find out what motorcycles can handle the wear and tear of multiple years, and which motorcycles are not good candidates for purchasing as a used motorcycle. Some motorcycles have serious issues, and some motorcycles have had serious recalls. Knowing these things may help your search.”

He added “You can use the internet to find where people are who are selling used motorcycles as well as the bigger used motorcycle lots. You need to find where the actual motorcycles are so you can go find them in person.” “Without the online trade portals for used motorcycles, the process of buying used motorcycles can be stressful and confusing. However, as there are number of websites who offer used motorcycles like ourselves, buying the same is easy by following some simple steps. You will be able to make sure that your used motorcycle search and decision will be efficient and somewhat stress free with the help of these online portals”.

The well said fact is that these online motorcycle traders have made buying a used motorcycle a breeze. Without these online portals, buying used motorcycles would have been harder than get a new one.

For more information, visit www.smartycycle.com

Whilst the rest of the European bike industry misfires, Ducati is running on all cylinders and returning muscular financial results.

Ducati's sales revenue for the first nine months of 2008 grew by 25 per cent year-on-year to £346m and net profit shot up by a stunning 84 per cent to £27.7m. Motorcycle shipments from the factory to dealers increased by 19.1 per cent to 36,979 units and worldwide retail sales were up by 8.3 per cent to 37,572 bikes, compared to a reference market (ie directly competing products from other manufacturers) decline of 6.8 per cent during the period.

The boys from Bologna say they are still on track to achieve a forecast 20 per cent growth in sales for their full financial year - a target increased from 15 per cent at the announcement of half-yearly performance data in August.

KTM, meanwhile, has admitted to a dramatic fall of almost 50 per cent in operating profit for the full 12 months of its financial year to 30 September to just £16.8m, blaming this on the plunging dollar-euro exchange rate and that it will cut motorcycle production for the 2009 season by ten per cent.

Piaggio is also cutting back on production across all its motorcycle and scooter brands after depressing results for the first nine months of 2008. Overall sales were down by 5.9 per cent and fell by ten per cent across Europe - which accounts for about 80 per cent of its two-wheeler market - while net profit dropped by 6.8 per cent.

BMW is feeling the pain too, with global motorcycle sales down by 2.5 per cent in the same period, and profit from bikes falling by 15.8 per cent.