Quad bike sales to cease
• Scottsdale Suzuki is uncertain about its future. L-R: employee Ben Joyce, owner Gary Underhill and apprentice Tayn Davis.
By Taylor Clyne
March 18, 2020
In an unprecedented move, all-terrain vehicle manufacturers have announced their intentions to exit the local market following the implementation of the Consumer Goods Quad Bike Safety Standard in October last year.
According to the new safety standard, all quad bikes are now required to have a rollover-warning label fixed, as well as meet US and European standards in regards to the performance of components such as brakes, throttles and clutches by October 2020.
With stage two implementations requiring a full factory fitted operator protection device installed to protect riders in the event of a bike rollover.
This drastic measure saw an announcement by Polaris last week that it would withdraw all ATV models from sale in the Australian market prior to October this year when stage one of the new regulations takes effect.
Competitors Honda and Yamaha have announced they too will withdraw sales by October 2021 and its expected Suzuki will follow suit in the not too distant future.
Scottsdale Suzuki owner Gary Underhill said the announcements left him feeling very concerned for their future.
“There is simply no engineering integrity to the ACCC’s findings and that’s why manufacturers are choosing to pull out of the Australian market; like many dealers, we are very disappointed in the new federal safety standards.
“I’ve been doing this for 38 years and in this area there has only been one Suzuki ATV fatality, which of course is really unfortunate, but putting these requirements on companies is very drastic,” Mr Underhill said.
The effects of the exit are expected to be felt across the agriculture sector with many farmers using ATVs as a tool of the trade.
“They just won’t be available anymore,” Mr Underhill said.
It's expected there will be a great push towards side-by-side vehicles however they do not offer the manoeuvrability of an ATV and are considerably more expensive to purchase and maintain.
Winnaleah dairy farmer Mark Kerr said he categorically disagreed with the new requirements and questioned whether governing bodies were doing enough to represent farmers' views.
“Once again in this country the working people are disadvantaged by decisions made by people with no concern for the ramifications to others,” he said.
“From a business side of things, there are so many jobs that we do on our properties which are not economical to do without.
“We’ve had bikes on our farm for over 35 years and have never had one accident; we properly train all our staff and follow safety measures.
“I’m disgusted that we aren’t being properly represented; many of the accidents that happen haven’t even been in the agriculture sector and are not the fault of the ATV.”
Mr Underhill said like Mr Kerr, he is a big believer in it being compulsory to wear a helmet, have adequate rider training, using the appropriately sized bike for your age and size and not carrying passengers.
“The fact of the matter is if the laws don’t change, they are all going to be gone and I’m not sure what that will mean for our business, we may need to move solely into a service dealership.”
It’s expected there will be a rush of quad bike purchases in the lead-up to the October 2021 deadline.