Thanks, EurasiaOverland! You're right. It probably does seem like an odd question, especially for this forum of international riders. It's coming from someone who's preparing for his own RTW trip and wants to make sure he does it right.

I've viewed the HU video set, attended an HU Meeting in Ontario, trolled the HUBB site (though not for a while), and exchanged personal emails with some RTW riders.

I was ready to start my RTW ride last year when my boss offered me the opportunity to work while traveling. I got to ride across the US/Canada, spend a couple months in Alaska, before selling my DR650 and flying to Chiang Mai where I spent 6 months as a digital nomad, renting bikes there, and visiting neighboring countries along the way. I also lived/worked in Europe for 5 years. So I'm not going in completely blind.

When I reached out to Boomerang Carnets to obtain a CPD, I was told the deposit could range from the value of my bike to 8 times that amount for Egypt, and I'd get about 80% of that amount back if the bike left the country with me. For a new $25k fully equipped R1200GS that seems like a $200k deposit with $40k not getting returned to me. Hopefully I've got these numbers wrong. Because $40k could cover my first year of RTW travel and the $200k could cover the rest of my multi-year RTW trip.

Hope you now know what's got me reconsidering my bike for this trip. Thanks for any advice you can provide!