BTW, I think the contribution of Ted Simon and Ewan & Charley are pretty different.

LWR showed that it could be done and relatively easily. "If these guys could do it, then I could as well". Otherwise, you did not get that they are actors "at work". No doubt, they made A LOT for overland biking (whatever the term), since they showed it at a big scale. So thanks for that contribution, which is being very inspirational.

While Ted Simon's approach is much more cultural, sort of a great personal growth, a long-term experience (not a 3 month RTW which sounds more like an organized tour in LWR). Sure LWR helped to boost his sales of books (as it did with BMWs!), as sad as it sounds, not the other way around. By contrast, by no means I would consider myself capable of crossing the Nubian desert in the same conditions Ted did it.

Many people in quiet areas of the UK like mine will never have a passport, however cheap and easy it may become to travel everywhere!

Will bikes/cars/vans/trucks of tomorrow actually be any use for travel far from a dealer once California's and Boris Johnson's plans come to fruition?

Do we have more time now than "back in the day"?

I've spent a fair amount of time on two feet exploring some of the greener bits of the UK, and am always amazed at the history thats gone before. I was told it would take 25 years to walk every street just in Londons City. There is so much history in the UK and Europe in depth and breadth I really don't want to waste one more second at work!

How anyone can be happy with two weeks a year on the beach in Spain I'll never fathom!

Jason

One of the issues mentioned here and many times elsewhere is the cost of petrol. Maybe someone with a better memory than me will correct me and maybe my calculations are incorrect after a few glasses of wine.
Around 1970 in the UK I seem to remember £1 would buy almost 3 gallons of fuel. That's around £0.35 per gallon. I started my first job in 1970 as a Heating and Ventilating Design Engineer. I was told when qualified I could expect to earn about £1500 pa. So on that basis a years salary for someone with a decent job would buy them around 4,285 gallons. (As an apprentice on £6 per week I struggled to put even a gallon a week in my little Bantam)
Today, if we say the equivalent job would pay around 40K and £1.30 per litre is about £5.90 per gallon, a years salary would buy around 6,760 gallons.
So we moan like mad about the price of fuel but in real terms it has actually gone down quite a lot in value. (Or am I out by a factor of 10 somewhere along the line?(
That's no excuse though for the government taking such a large % in tax and then squandering it.

Strangely, yesterday I was looking through an old motorcycle mag from 1970 that I found in the loft and there was a reference to petrol at eight shillings a gallon (and how expensive it was!). That's 40p in current money or about 9p a litre. On the income side my new graduate salary a couple of years later was the same £1500/yr that you mentioned.

These days though a similar new graduate job would only attract about £20,000 (or so my new graduate son tells me) so if £40K is a reasonable current income for a heating etc engineer he might have made a poor choice at uni . My rule of thumb though that prices have gone up x10 since the early/mid 70's would suggest that science graduate salaries have roughly kept pace and it's heating engineers that have moved up the ladder.

When he does get a job his £20k will buy him 3350 gals of petrol (at the price my local garage is selling it ) whereas I could have bought 3750. A little better but not a huge difference. I did wonder whether bikes had become cheaper / dearer over the same period but not a single advertiser in the mag quoted prices. I do remember though going to Morocco in 1970 two up on one bike (Yamaha 250) and it cost us £22.00 each. That £44.00 would be roughly the equivalent of about £600 now. Anyone think that's a reasonable budget for two people to go from London to Tangiers including ferries, fuel and (very downmarket) camping over just short of three weeks?

A good point about prices related to income, I think this can be applied to much of the cost of travel, bikes for instance, my 1991 R80GS was a years take home pay for me at the time, a new F800GS is closer to 8 months take home pay in the same job. People tend to get rose tinted spectacles about the price of things and forget how much less they earned way back when.

Excellent points Mark, which link to your previous post about Lumb Farm alternatives, "..the cost of a 1000 mile round trip to get there would put some people off". Good to have you on board.

A pity, that; it's a fine meet, well worth the trip.

Lot of good points made here.

Fuel price is rising and there will be no end. IMHO what has really helped is the economic decline for the past 4 years or so to keep it relatively stable, but if this shall pass and the consumption rise again then so will be the fuel price. We've probably already peaked on the global scale and we're on the "wrong-side-of-the-curve" with most of the "easy" fuel is gone. Now the oil companies have to go to the arctic extremes or drill in the deep ocean or refine it out of the oil sands etc high-effort/high-cost undertakings.

Most of serious overlanders are long-distance freaks so we are naturally concerned about the fuel prices. I'm hoping we'll have a very fuel efficent bikes coming in near future since the technology moves in this direction. Even Japanese, who've normally weren't bothered with fuel efficency on their big-bore bikes have gone in this direction, i.e. Honda's new low revving 700cc parallel twin. Close to 100 MPG 450-650cc adventure bikes would be nice thing to have - you'll have the same cost running it when the fuel prices have more than doubled. I'm also guessing in the future I won't be riding so much long distance anymore as I'm used to - discover the area in more short bursts and take my time looking around. Maybe even start touring on a bicycle someday - those shaft-driven bicycles look very nice and practical

Good thing is that for sure things we consume have gone cheaper: ie. bikes and gear since everything now is made in mass production fashion these days - i.e BMW, they used to make some few thousand bikes now they make some 100 000 bikers a year, it has to come cheaper to keep it rolling. Bikers still have a long way to go to get the same prices as the even more mass produced car market tho. Bike parts are still relatively ripoff compared to car stuff plus you don't need a good riding gear inside the car Every time I see my bill for the simple consumable parts such as filters, sparkplugs etc I feel I'm completely ripped off even if I search for the cheapest parts.

Good thing is that the wining will always stop once I hit the road with my bike.

Earning less in numbers in the past doesn't mean you actually earned less. It's about the 'purchase power': how much you earn in relationship of how much things cost around you in that particular time. Here's an inflation calculator to see relationship between "then and now" in the UK. I.e. check how much you earned in the 1970/80s and translate it into today's money

The post by Margus (and also from others above) is the kind of informative post which matters.

He is right about the committed RTW riders. Many, I guess, did not have huge salaries, yet they overcame a host of obstacles to make that terrific journey, some lasting years. That is a real inspiration, and which encourages others to do likewise. Long may it continue.

Purchasing power seen against earnings can also change perceptions about affordability. Good link.

As for future technology making a difference, let's hope it comes sooner rather than later. For sure there will be something, and the development of ever more economical engines can be seen over the last few years, with more advances made in cars than bikes, I think. The new 'Track' Dutch diesel bike uses a Smart car engine to power it, with impressive kms per litre. But the bike is expensive at around 18,000 euros. Smaller petrol bikes of course may be increasingly used. Or Hartz style diesel powered bikes in an old frame.

I believe oil companies predict ample oil reserves yet to be exploited (the Arctic - as has been mentioned) so I guess the supply will be there. But the price will rise, and that may be a difficulty, especially as other developing countries buy it in increasing amounts. China is securing its future supplies with contracts all over the world, affecting price. So do politics and taxes. Hydrogen powered vehicles may be developed, cost unknown, not any time soon.

Big trips will surely continue as Margus suggests with the serious overlanders. And as has been pointed out, more big trips or RTWs are being made than ever before. I hope that lasts. I think the shorter distance trips will rise, as suggested to places like Albania, or destinations in S. America for N. Americans. As we (in the West) live longer than before many riders will have more time but less money when they stop work. I don't earn money any more, but I still want to bike travel to wherever I can, adjusted to my means. I've enjoyed the opinions of others here, which, as always, modify my view.