Just watching Long way round, motorbikes but an adventure non the less,
I’ve a friend who’s planning a cycle trip around the world,

How much planning? Cash is needed for this sort of thing?

Alastair humphries took four years and did it on 4k he’d saved from his student loan – that was in 2001 though and he dud a ridiculously long route (wrote 2 good books about it )

A mate of mine’s sister did it in 3 years and they reckoned £25k between them IIRC. I met her about a year before they went and the planning had only just started, although they had the bikes and knew what they going to do to prepare them for the trip.
Meriden Triumphs – Bonneville 1982 and a Triumph Tiger 1981, based on simple, reliable (and repairable) engineering

Some of the subsequent series (long Way Down, etc.) did an ep or so introduction about the logistics, and the producer, camera guy and secretaries feature a bit more.

Makes it more interesting than programs like the worlds worst roads where there’s clearly camera cars etc doing the route too, but kept out of shot (mostly).

edit: no clue about doing it by bike though, although we did think about it in uni, but decided it was impossible to ride from UK to Indonesia without riding thru at least one war!

Yeah just watching the episode where they drive the road of bones in eastern Russia, scary ass road, lucky to get through!

You lot have to read the ride reports on advrider.com and http://www.thepostman.org.uk/ about the guy who did Sydney to London on a Honda 110 postie bike.

A couple my wife knew tried the cycle around the world thing, but both got knocked off and killed in Thailand 🙁
I’d say avoid Thailand.

No idea on costs, however this is a nice blog for inspiration.

McNeils on Wheels

Pete was a very good guide with Joyriders.