BACK when it was introduced, the Statutory Off-Road Notice – SORN – wasn’t terribly popular. It’s still a pain if you prefer to only tax your bike for part of the year. But on the plus side it does provide access to some intriguing information.
The latest set of detailed figures, just released by the government, reveals exactly what bikes were listed as SORN during the second quarter of 2015. The second quarter numbers are particularly interesting since they shouldn’t reflect bikes that have just been garaged for winter – these SORN machines are off the road in the middle of the riding season, eliminating those that are simply tucked away during winter.
It’s also interesting to see that the list of SORNed bikes doesn’t reflect the list of bikes that are most commonly found on the road.
So, what is likely to be tucked away in that neighbour’s garage?
10. Kawasaki ZX900 (3189)
The 'ZX900' name might be an odd one to use but it’s the title usually put on the registration document of a ZX-9R, and that’s what most of the bikes here are likely to be. Some may also be GPZ900s, which are also sometimes listed as ZX900s on their documents. Given that the youngest ZX-9Rs are now 11 years old, it makes sense that a lot are reaching the ends of their lives, or perhaps waiting to be refreshed, behind closed doors.
