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[[{“value”:”Whether it’s excitement or an eye-roll, you can’t deny that a new installment of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s “Long Way” series will elicit some … feelings from the adventure riding crowd. Love them or hate them, Ewan and Charley brought BMW adventure bikes into the global social consciousness. These days, if you’re not riding a Harley (any cruiser) or a Ninja (any sportbike), and it’s weird looking, non-riders are going to ask you what kind of BMW your Super Tenere or KTM Adventure is. Thanks, I think?
A New Adventure
Anyway, in comes a fourth, ten-episode season (can we call it a season?) of “Long Way” straight to streaming on Apple TV. Before you roll your eyes too hard, note that this time they will not be riding anything electric, or anything out of Milwaukee. Perhaps they learned. (Where DID that bus end up, anyway?)
Make It a Longer Ride
The new trip will be “Long Way Home,” and their plan is to start at Ewan’s place in Scotland. From Scotland, they’ll ferry across the North Sea to wander Scandinavia, touch the Arctic Circle, then tour the Baltic states. From there, they’ll wander Europe before arriving at Charley’s house in England. All told, the trip will cover around 10,000 miles. That is, if one or both of their bikes don’t irrevocably break down along the way.
What Are Those Bikes?
You’ve probably already studied the only photo on the internet, repeated here, of the bikes they’ll be riding. Predictably, McGregor is on a Moto Guzzi California (my guess is an 80s model California II, the most “reliable” of the old Italians). Charley is on what I’m going to guess, if he has done his homework, a post-1985 BMW single-shock Airhead whose valve covers have been swapped out for the older, prettier ones.
Maintenance and Upgrades
All the information I could find said that they were going to be riding “vintage, refurbished” bikes; no further specifics. The photo suggests the bikes have not had any aesthetic improvements. Instead of a paint job, I hope they (or whomever they paid to do the work) has made other repairs before the trip.
On the Guzzi, that would hopefully include a full wiring harness replacement, and on the BMW, some kind of maintenance to, or improvement of, all of the suspension pivot bearings and driveshaft couplings. Both bikes definitely want suspension and charging system upgrades before the trip. Otherwise, all the regular maintenance, including wheel bearings and steering head bearings are a no-brainer.
Both Pretty Bullet-Proof
Ten thousand miles shouldn’t be too much of a challenge for either of these bikes. When it comes to machines this old (yes, I know lots of inmates, myself included, were born before the 80s, and we have to face that truth) what’s going to break next is a crapshoot on a long trip.
Place Your Bets
So, perhaps the thing to do, if you’re interested at all in watching two actors and their chase truck tour Europe (etc.) is to place bets on what breaks first, and whether they’ll have any idea how to diagnose or repair it. With full disclosure, I definitely plan to watch, since while I thought the electric-motorcycle journey was a bit of an ill-conceived fiasco (how DID they get through Mexico, anyway??) I found them both disarming in their obvious enthusiasm for the sport. My only real hope is that Claudio joins them on this trip, too.
Friends, study the photo and tell me if you can see anything I’m missing. And tell me about your adventures riding either of these bikes when they were newer.
The post Take The Long Way Home appeared first on Adventure Rider.”}]]
