That's why it's useful to keep them (and you) covered in dirt. An inch of dirt and the perceived value halves.

Not everyone is bothered about what the locals think though. Did once see a Polish guy roll into a campsite in Africa on an Africa Twin. First thing he did was demand a bucket and a cloth so he could clean it. The rest of us were just happy our engines started.

There has got to be a joke in there playing on the Polish / polish bit. Someone will come up with something suitable.

Yeah, an easy trap to fall into - it's why I deliberately stayed away from using it twice.

As it happened the bloke did polish it after he'd washed the dirt off. As he was about 6' 10" nobody was going to argue with him. He left the next morning at blurry picture o'clock on the back wheel for the first 50m.

Best I could do half asleep with a crappy point and shoot -

"How much did it cost?", he asked.

"A lot," I replied, with chagrin.

"But how many dollars?"

"Very expensive- like my wife- but worth it," I said with a big grin.


Also- I don't think it matters whether you're riding a BMW or a Suzuki DR650 or a KLR. They are all foreign, powerful and expensive motorcycles in most of the world. Likewise with your gear: an Arai or Shoei helmet is not going to be recognized as any different from a HJC or a Scorpion.


..........shu

I'm asked this question all the time, by all sorts of people--about my tablet or phone, my bike, my pants or boots. If I can't evade gently like shu above, I generally tell the truth, although perhaps shaded towards the cheaper end of the scale. For example, my KLR cost ~US$5000, but I don't mention the dealer prep charges, sales tax, registration fees, etc. which added another thousand or so, or the touring stuff I added which cost another couple of thousand. I doubt the difference between $5k and $6k or $8k really matters to anyone but me.

In my experience, those asking the questions already know the answers. They've asked others before me, and they've shared information with friends who've been asking. They may also be familiar with local people who own similar, large displacement bikes, purchased at much higher local prices, and there are police and military personnel riding large bikes, too. Aside from all that, they've likely got family or friends living in Europe or the States, earning and spending at the same levels as I. Lying, or even evading the question, merely serves to tell them I'm not to be trusted and/or feel guilty. I prefer not to communicate that message even when it's true.

What I'm aiming for is a conversation about the relative values of money in high-wage countries. I don't want to pretend that things are equitable when they're not, but the fact that in my country I earn $20 or $40 or $xxx per hour is not really separable from the related facts that I live 2000 miles from the place I grew up and the even more distant places where my parents died, that I recently paid $170 to have a waterproof zipper replaced on a jacket, that it is literally not possible to buy a restaurant meal in my town for under $10 (and rare to find one under $15 or $20).

Some people get this and some don't. Many of them already know it long before they ask me. When I travel, I'm trying to bring my full self with me and to enter into genuine relationships with actual people along the way. If I cannot generally tell the simple truths, maybe I shouldn't be there in the first place.

None of which applies when I feel like I'm bring set up to be forcibly separated from my possessions, of course. And when someone asks (as they sometimes do) how much money I've got in the bank or on my debit card, I lie without hesitation. There are limits to my purity.

Mark

My answer tends to vary depending on the situation and how I read the person asking. This applies to both my motorcycle and my CDN $2500 bicycle when I'm travelling.

Most of the time I tell them the approximate real value of the equipment but I qualify it with explaining that I have to work very hard for many years in order to afford it. Sometimes I just say that I prefer not to tell. In other words, simply honesty.

On occasion, I've told people that I don't know since it was a gift from my fiance.

...Michelle