(AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, file)

By Kathy Bergen
| In the silver lining department: Yes, motorcycle sales plummeted last year, but so did the number of thefts.

Thefts fell by 13 percent , according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a Des Plaines-based not-for-profit organization. This in a year when other trade groups reported motorcycle sales were down more than 40 percent.

A total of 56,093 were reported stolen, down from 64,492 in 2008, with the top five stolen makes being Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Harley-Davidson, in that order.
 
The decline continues a downward trend in such thefts, and is in sync with reduced thefts in cars and light trucks, the group said.
 
The top five states for motorcycle theft were sunny ones:  California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia. And the top time for thefts, not surprisingly, was summer.