Whether it’s excitement or eye-rolling, there’s no denying that a new installment in Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s Long Way series is going to evoke some…feelings among the adventure biker crowd. Love them or hate them, Ewan and Charley have brought BMW adventure bikes into the global social consciousness. These days, if you don’t ride a Harley (some cruiser) or Ninja (some sportbike) and it looks odd, non-bikers will ask you what kind of BMW your Super Tenere or KTM Adventure is. Thanks, I guess?
A new adventure
Anyway, there’s a 10-episode fourth season (can we call it a season?) of Long Way available to stream directly on Apple TV. Before you roll your eyes too much, know that they won’t be driving an electric vehicle this time, nor will they be driving a vehicle from Milwaukee. Maybe they learned from that. (Where did that bus end up, anyway?)
Take a longer trip
The new journey is called ‘Long Way Home’ and is set to begin at Ewan’s home in Scotland. From Scotland they will take a ferry across the North Sea to cross Scandinavia, reach the Arctic Circle and then travel to the Baltic States. From there they will cross Europe before arriving at Charley’s home in England. In total the journey will cover around 10,000 miles. That is, unless one or both of their bikes break irreparably along the way.
What kind of bikes are these?
You’ve probably already looked at the only photo on the internet, repeated here, of the bikes they’ll be riding. As expected, McGregor is riding a Moto Guzzi California (I’m guessing it’s an ’80s California II model, the “most reliable” of the old Italians). Charley is riding, as I would guess if he’s done his homework, a post-1985 BMW Single-Shock Airhead with the valve covers swapped out for the older, nicer ones.
Maintenance and upgrades
All the information I could find said they were riding “old refurbished” bikes; no further details. The photo suggests the bikes had no cosmetic upgrades. Rather than a paint job, I hope they (or whoever paid them to do the work) did other repairs before the trip.
On the Guzzi, this would hopefully involve a complete wiring harness replacement, and on the BMW, servicing or upgrading all suspension pivot bearings and driveshaft couplings. Both bikes will definitely require suspension and charging system upgrades before the trip. Otherwise, all regular maintenance, including wheel bearings and steering head bearings, are a breeze.
Both pretty bulletproof
Ten thousand miles shouldn’t be too much of a challenge for any of these bikes. With machines this old (yes, I know many of the occupants, myself included, were born before the 80s and we have to face that truth) it’s a gamble on what will break next on a long ride.
Place your bets
So if you’re at all interested in watching two actors on their truck chase through Europe (etc.), you might want to take bets on what breaks first and whether they have any idea how to diagnose or fix it. To be perfectly honest, I definitely plan on watching this because even though I thought the electric motorcycle trip was a pretty ill-advised fiasco (how did they even get through Mexico??), I found the two of them disarming with their obvious enthusiasm for the sport. My only real hope is that Claudio joins them on this trip too.
Friends, take a close look at the photo and tell me if you see something I missed. And tell me about your adventures with one of these bikes when they were newer.
