From what I have seen at travellers meetings and from the number of people that I have met on the road the interest and participation in overland motorcycle travel has actually increased in the past few years, partly I suspect due to the Ewan and Charlie effect. The cost has always been high and it has taken a well paid job, selling your house and or long term saving to pay for travel, I took 5 years to save for my first long trip, so no change there.
The thing I have noticed with rising cost has been the increase in the use of smaller bikes, Honda C90 or XL125 instead of big GS or XT's, the smaller bikes not only having cheaper running costs but travel insurance and shipping cost being less.
I find that I am now prepared to make those shorter trips and explore places more thoroughly but only after experiencing the thrill of riding across entire continents on previous trips, something I expect people will be doing for sometime yet.
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