I think I may be one of the cheap ones. My bike gets what it needs when it absolutely needs it and never ever before, because I don't like spending money that I don't have to. And.....

Controversially - and I fully expect indignant backlash....I quite often ride in jeans and leather jacket, or combats and leather jacket, with combat boots and some leather gloves. I always wear an Arai, but I know the no leather jeans look can be controversial. If it helps people in preparing their anti jeans/me arguments, I am also young and irresponsible.

As for books - Miller is great - he conveys what it is like to be a wannabe writer as convincingly as anyone but Fante and Bukowski. Cancer and Capricorn are both massively inspiring.
I always used to claim I didn't like American lit, but after meeting an American girl in Essouira last year who gave me a Bukowski poetry book I haven't looked back. Fante, Miller, Bukowski, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Thompson - just can't get enough of those damn Yanks recently.

As a Brit, I would recommend Glen Duncan and Irvine Welsh as the foremost purveyors of what it is to be British.

As a controversialist, I would recommend Charlie Boorman for his insistently beautiful prose style. Which isn't at all whingey or repetitive.

Happy riding.