[tpelle]

Recently, while cooped up in the house for a few days with the flu, I watched, on Netflix, a documentary series "Long Way Round".  It followed a motorcycle expedition conducted by Scottish actor Ewan McGregor and fellow British actor Charlie Boorman, both avid motorcyclists, who rode from London to New York, west to east, on a couple of BMW GS's.  They had a LOT of difficulties as they passed through places like Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Eastern Russia, and Siberia, mainly with the almost entirely lack of roads.

Anyway, it's a terrific story and well worth viewing if you have the opportunity.

But I wonder about the Continental GT trip depicted in the RE promotional video.  Did this really happen as depicted?  Is there a back story to this trip, or was it filmed by helicoptering the bikes, actors, and crew on to the location for a day of filming, then retiring to a luxury hotel somewhere?

[mattsz]

tpelle -

I enjoyed that series, too.  But... those two guys don't seem to get a much respect among most of the riders I've come across on various forums.

As for the GT travelog - based on the bikes and the hipster riders, I can make a guess as to how it happened.  There may not have been actual helicopters involved, but... 

[tpelle]

I was a little offended, being an American and a firearms enthusiast as well, about the several remarks made about the likely most dangerous part of the trip would likely be in the United States and would involve being shot or being run over by a truck on the freeway.

I then was amused by the events during the night they spent as a guest of the Russian mine owner, and their reaction to the number of SERIOUS guns that the guy kept out in the open in his house - to include a shot of Ewan McGregor clowning around with a PPSH submachine gun.  Not to mention the fact that the only mention of actual gun violence happened in Russia, I believe, where someone drove up, pointed a handgun at them with supposed intent to rob or kidnap, but was apparently scared off by other cars passing by.

Ewan McGregor also made a big deal about going into a store in Alaska and finding guns for sale right next to where he had picked up a tube of thoothpaste.  I speculate that if he lived in Alaska it wouldn't be long before he acquired some sort of firearm himself.  I also speculate that, if this is the true measure of British young men, that if it had been so in 1939 or so, Mr. McGregor would be speaking German.

In all fairness, though, I believe that the only actual collision that occurred was on an Alaskan freeway where a young kid in a Honda sedan rear-ended Ewan McGregor's motorcycle, striking him a glancing blow in one of his panniers, and that it was pretty amazing that McGregor was able to keep the bike under control and not crash.

Imagine the kid's dismay when he realized the implications to the Galaxy in general that he had almost killed Obi-Wan Kenobi!

[GSS]

The bikes seemed to change part way through the RE promotional video . The ones shown in the beginning in UK had bar-end mirrors and the ones that "reached" India had mirrors on stalks........

[tpelle]

Good eye!  I missed that!

[Kevin Mahoney]

Must have been a tough trip

[olhogrider]

Must have been a tough trip

Round the world, or the RE ride? I don't care if they had a support crew and truck, Ewan and Charlie rode AROUND THE WORLD! The only people who don't respect that are internet trolls who live in their mother's basements and wish they could own a bike some day. And most of them are in their 50's. Next you should watch Long Way Down. Ewan and Charlie ride from Scotland to Cape Town. I have enjoyed reading the exploits of Lois Pryce. In the 1970s Ted Simon rode around the world on a Triumph 650. Then in HIS 70s he did it again! The second time was on a BMW. Both good reads.