Hi to all the RTW bikers!

I am simply amazed by the thread I've found about swapping bikes. I've been traveling through the World for a fair deal of my life and now the bike has got the honour to take me elsewhere. I've also grimmed a lot - from behind te computer screen - about just how hard it is it to get your bike over the seas, how expensive it acctually is to rent a bike and how impossible it is to buy it internationally. I must say I still haven't scrapped the surface of all the forums' wisdom, but I don't expect to come to much different conclusions: the biggest hassle with bike travel over-seas is to GET IT there.

That is why i'd like to appeal to all bike-swap community with a first question: Could you please help me with all possible resources (sites), regional and world-wide, to get a general impression on how well this swap thing works.
List any sites, forums, local communities, stories whatever that you know that made people swap bikes successfully. I don't know any other than horizons unlimited.

The second question is: Do you think a dedicated community, which would work really similarly to couchsurfing.org, would be a better place for us swappers to communicate about our possiblities. A place where one would present his offer (bike, place), would get verified, would find trans-continental swap-matches, would learn about regional specifics about riding other-poeples' bikes.

The premise for the swap thing to work includes:

1. the match of places&bikes of the swap mates
2. the trust between the swap mates
3. the "critical mass" of bike owners that are open to lending their own bike, or buying used one for the purpose of lending it to a swap-mate
4. the regulation, paperwork, regional laws that regulate insurance and responsibilities. (I know for EU and USA that the insurance is bound to vehicle and the driver is responsible for driving it legally)

I strongly feel, that the latter is not the problem, but that we need the first three for us to be able to get swapping them bikes.

I might, however, be wrong and the regulation is indeed a party-pooper and we are doomed to ride the world with a big pain and loads of money.
What do you think?