"The Long Way Round"...Epic series!!! must see!
 

Well I guess I've been living under a rock, but I just watched this mini-series starring Ewan Mcgregor and his buddy. They take BMW Dual Sports and ride them around the world!!! Just an incredible story. Everyone who has not seen it must see it!!

I want a Beemer to add to the stable before anything else!

I've got a K1200LT with your name all over it! ;)

What channel is that on, i wanna check it out. You seen twist the throttle on discovery hd, tells how each motorcycle manfucaturer got its start, some interesting stuff in there.

I always wanted to ride the rockies north and south. Would that be a good ride? I did route 1 along the west coast and ended up at Laguna and camped out at the races. That was a blast.

I'd really like to ride in Italy/europe where drivers move out the way for each other instead of calling the cops, blocking or running you off the road.

Sounds like the makings for a good thread - "Your Personal Long Way Round" ;)

Its an older series, so you will have to rent it. Google it, it may be online streaming?

regarding the long way around, there were a bunch of strange coincidences between where they went once they got in the states and myself. when they came thru IL, they stopped in the town I live in now. then when they went to NY, they went right by my home town, and ended up stopping at the hotel resort where I used to work when I was in college. it was kinda wierd watching Iwan MacGregor and his wife standing and talking where I used to valet cars. anyway, there is a second series that they did. its called the long way down. they go from scotland down to the cape of good hope south africa. also very good.

THat ride would have been SOOOO much easier on the KTM. Or any smaller bike. :eek:

Yeah bonehead marketing move by KTM to not provide bikes even if they thought they couldn't make it. BMW made millions in sales from those shows.

I disagree. I would personally only do that ride with a shaft driven bike.

Oh I have "The Long Way Down" sitting here too! I'll watch that soon too.

Agreed, I read the book and was quite surprised at KTM's reaction when asked to sponsor with bikes. I lost some respect for KTM after that. But the GS1200 would not have even been in my top 10 bikes for that trip.

4 sons of various friends of mine rode Capetown to London, the whole way overland (apart from the Mediterranean, yeah, yeah...) on old aircooled trail bikes costing under $2K each, unsupported, a couple of years ago. They made and sell a DVD about it, too. See www.africanodyssey.co.nz

Ewan and Charlie with BMW sponsorship, backup vehicles, and inability to ride any of the rough stuff, look pretty lame in comparison. See numerous comments over on the Adventure Riders forum.

FWIW, see comments re unreliability of modern GS BMs, also. Anyone for broken driveshafts/UJs suddenly stopping the rear wheel from turning????

Having ridden both the KTM and BMW in question on gravel and off road I can tell you differently...

The KTM is more top heavy and has a snatchier powerband... With the luggage on the bike it becomes a nightmare... The BMW is much more stable and controllable...

Yeah, it would be a lot easier on a smaller bike... But then they couldn't carry half of the stuff they'd need...

Yeah, the new BMW's aren't as reliable as I'd like... But they are about the same as the comparable KTM...

[QUOTE=Tweety;223583]

Yeah, it would be a lot easier on a smaller bike... But then they couldn't carry half of the stuff they'd need...

QUOTE]

With all respect, all the stuff they needed could be (and, I believe, was) carried in their backup vehicles. E&C should have done their rides on Honda 50 stepthrus.

Cf African Odyssey. Those guys did actually carry everything on their old XL250s and 500s, including their camera gear.

remember, there were long stretches during both trips where they were completely on their own. no support vehicle for days. they needed the onboard cargo. mongolia anyone? or in the LWD, the chase cars weren't always allowed to go where the bikes went. they had to meet up later. none of the americans on the trip werre allowed into lybia(sp?)(because lybians suck) so they had to go around and meet then at the other side.

"Long Way Round" was a very cool series. Doesn't really matter what you think of the riders/bikes/ or whatever. Ewan McGregor is a high profile guy and the positive effect this adventure had on motorcycling in general is great IMO....

Couldn't agree more.

My point is that their motorcycling was nothing startling, though it achieved BMW's aims admirably, in supercharging sales of overweight unreliable pigs of bikes burdened down with tonnes of unnecessary accessories. (NB I have nothing against BMs per se - two of my own favourite bikes were BMWs.)

But put the E & C achievements against, at random, Miss McKean, who in 1958 rode a 175cc BSA Bantam from London to Sydney via Europe and Asia, including Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and from Darwin through Alice Springs and the outback to Sydney. She carried all camping equipment etc with her, and had no support other than her abilities as a nursing sister.

There are thousands of other examples.

"Long Way Round" and "Long Way Down" are triumphs of marketing hype, not of motorcycling.

I agree, but they were filmed superbly and were fun to watch. I don't think anyone ever said that they are the greatest motorcyclists of all time.

by the way, I'm sure Ewan would laugh at all the nay sayers, because he DID IT!

I guess I'm coming across as a cantankerous old fart.

That's probably because I am. But I have also done the riding, personally.

My real problem with these series is the way they have persuaded all sorts of suckers that to tour gravel roads you need a fully optioned-up hyperbarge.

The opposite is the truth.

It's much more fun to tour the back country with a light bike and minimal equipment. I do know - I've toured back country NZ, outback Australia, and several Asian countries, on unsealed roads and on no roads at all in plenty of places.

Having tried most of the options, my choice is a simple air-cooled four-stroke with bash plate and large fuel tank, and another tank full of harden-up juice. If something goes wrong, I can fix it.

Seldom does something go wrong if you're on a light enough machine, anyway. More weight = more strain, on both the rider and the machine itself.

The sealed roads all the world over are chocker with Ewan and Charlie wannabees. Poor bastards.

PS some of my own adventure bikes, Easter 2009:

Attachment 29289

There is a story here. The Royal Enfield has been trying to get together with the little GT6 Triumph in the garage in the background, VTLTR and making sidecars. The Triumph is actually impressed by the big, manly Varadero, which has been filling her with tales of how he has just been out spearfishing from the dinghy.

More seriously, the XL250 is the same model as I first toured outback Australia on in the mid-70s. The Enfield was bought new in India in 2003, and I have since adventure-ised it. The Varadero is my hyperbarge for gravel roads - same motor as the VTR, but injected. Long-travel suspension. I have done 210 km/hr on a gravel road on it. My wife loves the thing as a pillion's bike. You would not go offroad on it.

My present most-used adventure bike is a DR650 Suzuki, and I also have a '74 OSSA Explorer that is a more offroad oriented adventure machine.

Yeah, you are but it's allright... I'm surrounded by old farts on bikes that run rings around me, so I'm used to it...;)

Now I haven't done as long trips as you have... But I have tried a lot of bikes... On and off road...

If you are carrying a decent load, like they where... There is no better bike than the BMW... period... You can't convince me otherwise... Second choice would be the Varadero (first with a middle sized load)... Last, long down on the list would be the KTM (see above)... My choice of lighter bikes does not include any BMW's... Unless they are 10+ years...

But yeah it can be done on lighter bikes... And with a lighter load... When you pack for going out on bike, on fot or whatever the question isn't what to bring... It's what to leave behind... A very telling scene is when they have had the second bike welded in russia, and they throw out about half the gear before re-packing...

If I was going to do a trip like that I'd probably choose a Varadero, mostly because I like the engine character on gravel roads... Plus I know that engine inside out and I can repair it sitting in a gravel pit somewhere... (Yeah even most electronics...)

As I would not have any cars following and I would have to carry all my own gear... But I'd make the load as light as possible... And with a decent nobbly tire on, that bike works more than good enough off road... And I really mean off-road...

Oh, and no, they did not convince anyone that you need a big pack and big bike to go adventuring... The stupid people can convince themselfes good enough without help...

Ewan and Charlie followed their dreams... That makes me respect them... Good offroad riders or not... The other yahoo's that are following them and not their own dreams... Well they need their head adjusted... Preferably with a baseball bat...

I guess the difference in approach is that I actually like to travel light in the back country - years of going fishing in really remote places, where you have to walk in 15-20 kilometers from the nearest place you can ride a bike, has taught me that.

And, since I always take a fishing rod with me and stay near to sea, rivers, and lakes (apart from outback Aussie :evillaugh:), I usually don't have to carry any bulky foods, either: fish is just fine. Some dried vegetables, some flour, a bit of salt, a camping burner, a little water, small container of cooking oil, one cooking/eating vessel, a lightweight tent and small bedroll, a very few changes of clothes, basic hand GPS and paper maps, knives, basic basic basic toolkit, spare inner tubes - that's about all. Oh, and duct tape and a selection of different sorts of wire.

For that sort of load, you don't need to have a carrier on the bike, even. A tank bag and a small backpack, and everything else is tied to the seat and back of the machine.

What I don't carry: spare riding gear (if I wreck that, I'm doubtless injured, and not going to be riding anywhere); spare tyres (huh? how far from a retailer are you going to go, if you've started with a good tyre, as you should?); camera (I'm changing my mind about that, as my memory will doubtless fade as I age more, and mere memory may not be sufficient, as it has been so far. My little Fuji takes very little space, anyway); plates, forks and spoons (one fishing knife and one Swiss Army knife are plenty); EPIRB (a false sense of security - if you're going to a place so gnarly, then you need to have at least one companion; but there are few places that gnarly anywhere); beer (again, huh? I like my drink as much as anyone, but surely you don't need chemicals to enhance your enjoyment of the outdoors); spices and sauces (ditto); deodorant (ditto; and also this is not a journey to pick up women, guys); camping chair; insect repellent (ummm; depends on where...); blah blah blah, including replacement driveshaft shit. I do carry spare chain links x3, chain lube, and a chain breaker.

Now... That I can agree with... I'm used to hiking in the Swedish hill country... Or higher up in the mountains... There the idea of carrying things you don't need is stupid beyond reason... Fishing rod however is a neccesity...;)

I'll add that I do carry my camera... All the time... And insect repellent... If you ever been to kebenekaise and met the insects there you would too... They are about the size of WW2 flying fortresses...

Oh... and a spork... Spoon and fork... look it up...;)

Nice little collection you have there Pete. I remember the GT6 very well as I worked for Jaguar/Rover-Triumph back in the seventies. Like your XL250,nice bike.I owned an XT500 of 1980 vintage that I bought after meeting a bunch of guys from Oz who were on an American "ride about" using Yams big thumper.
I agree that a good reliable, light machine will basically take you anywhere if its set up right. As for Mcgregors "Long Way Round", yeah, what a great coup for BMW. I kept thinking while watching the show, "You lucky bastards!" and could I / would I have the nuts to try that myself? :)

Yeah, the GT6 is a pretty little car. Mine's a MkII, with the cute wee bobtail and the sorted rear suspension.

PS Tweety - I've been pampered riding trials on OSSAs since 1973: I couldn't be bothered trying to ride the Vara really offroad, compared with gravel roads and formed tracks.

I'm also too old to need to demonstrate that I have balls. I'm too busy trying to remember what I have them for.

PPS for another take on the GSs, see "Hitlers new bike" on YouTube.