South-west farmers stock up on quad bikes as manufacturers pull out of Australian market

As of October next year Honda will stop selling quad bikes in Australia, following in the footsteps of Polaris and Yamaha.

The decision comes as new federal government standards will require all quad bikes be fitted with rollover protection from October 2021.

Philip Russell, from Philip Russell Motorcycles in Warrnambool, said they had no quad bikes to sell with the last one selling at the end of May.

"Our next stock will be next year if we actually get stock," he said. "It's 25 to 30 per cent of our business gone straight out of the door."

Mr Russell said farmers were very annoyed with how the new regulations would affect their work and production.

"We've got rain, we've got hills, we've got dairy cattle and mud and the other alternatives don't work as well as an ATV (all terrain vehicle) and are a lot more expensive generally," he said.

Mr Russell said he was getting limited information from Suzuki and it was frustrating for himself and his customers. He said he was getting about 12 calls a day from people inquiring about quad bikes.

Callaghan Motors operations manager Brett Jones said the business stocked up on Polaris quad bikes and side-by-sides about six weeks ago.

He said the demand was so great that Callaghan's sold two quad bikes to Healesville in recent days because Melbourne dealers had run out of stock. He said they had sold out of different models of quad bikes.

"The stock is going fairly quick," he said.

Roe Motorcycle and Mower dealer principal David Reinheimer said farmers had been buying multiple bikes and storing one in the shed till it was needed down the track.

He said farmers were disappointed that the government had been forced to step in and regulate because of the continued numbers of deaths.

There were 61 quad bike fatalities around Australia between 2015 and last year, according to Safe Work Australia. So far this year there have been nine deaths.