Yep, always been this way.
Summer is when the weather turns nice and all the BMW drivers, sick of being stuck in traffic, see us filtering along and decide they want a piece of that. Couple of weeks later, they take their nice shiny DASed licence down to the dealership and ride away on a Daytona (always the yellow one) or a Fireblade.
For the rest of the rabble, who cannot afford shiny new bikes, second-hand is the way to go. Most know fuck-all about bikes and so long as it's a big, pretty, shiny V-Twin flower upon which these Butterfly riders may alight, they will pay their monies for it.
Often, the hilarious ones will be 1800s buying 1800 bikes off last season's 1800s.
The 1800 - Cruiser term for both the type of rider and the bike they ride. That is to say; an 1800cc bike bought new for £18,000, before the rider spends £1800 on branded (usually tassled) clothing, another £1800 on a big name helmet, plus £1800 on tassled & chromed accessories, rides the bike for 1800 miles, then gives it up and sells it... and because, having been incorrectly by a clueless noob over Winter, it's now only worth £1800!!
I reckon if I painted a few Sons Of Anarchy logos on the Dragstar, I'd sell it for a mint!!