Yea, CCM's market research obviously aimed towards high end of RTW travelers. I'm sure guys like Colebatch, Pyndon (Lyndon Poskett) and a handful of other royal family members love the CCM, and can afford it.

These wanna-be Dakar racers ride to Mongolia like it's a rally. To each his own. Pyndon & Colebatch are both skilled fabricators and designers, both their business's are spin offs from their travel adventure fame created on the internet.

Both have legions of Leg Humper followers on ADV Rider. Pyndon and Colebatch fabricate modified BMW's and KTM 690's that end up costing in the £20,000 range. (New Sibirsky Extreme bike build | Adventure Rider)

So, the CCM is reasonable by comparison. Colebatch builds bikes for himself, Pyndon sells to actual Dakar racers and well off "enthusiasts".

Whomever CCM consulted for inspiration/knowledge ... IMO, they've aimed at a rather limited, affluent group. Many young travelers starting out would want something cheap as chips, don't care if it's of race pedigree. They don't even care if it breaks down. All part of the adventure and all. Most aren't rally racers.

But I'm not sure anyone could build a bike in Britain for much less than CCM has, using quality components. After all, so much of what we see today is made in either Thailand, Korea or China. It may say Made In Japan, but the Japanese now source TONS of parts from China and produce many models in Thailand and Korea.

It's true the CCM motor wears a BMW badge, but is originally a Rotax design that has always been manufactured in Taiwan by Kymco. Kymco make Excellent products.

Obviously, with BMW's abrupt cancellation of the 450 race bike, Kymco/BMW were left with possibly thousands of 450 engines stuck in a warehouse somewhere. I would love to hear insiders story on this and what sort of deal CCM got on the Engines. Pennies on the pound?

But the rest of the bike is NOT going to be cheap. Can't be. No way can a tiny producer match costs/volumes and selling prices with big manufacturers.

So YES ... the CCM is expensive. But I understand why and don't believe they are ripping anyone off ... and probably just treading water at this point. I hope they survive!

What's worrisome is the limited scope/focus of the GP450 as it seems a bit limited as a versatile overall world travel machine.

Yes, I think you've hit on it there.

It's possible Honda will come out with a "CRF450L" or some such ... or Yamaha a "WR450R", but both would no doubt need lots of Mods to make good travel bikes. The Japanese will never produce a "ready to go" RTW type travel bike.
It would always need mods.

As of now, most end up making their own version of the above using an old tech bike like my DR650 or a XR650L, KLR or XT600 or 660. Not so bad really.
It's a cheap way to go and plenty of good donor bikes around.

DRZ400S is a good example. For a couple grand in mods its nearly as good as a KTM or CCM ... and probably more reliable down the road.