{"id":4153,"date":"2020-09-25T17:15:27","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T22:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scenicapp.space\/blog\/?p=4153"},"modified":"2020-09-28T10:00:32","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T15:00:32","slug":"long-way-ewan-charley-vs-youtube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scenicapp.space\/blog\/long-way-ewan-charley-vs-youtube\/","title":{"rendered":"Ewan and Charley vs YouTube Motorcycle Overlanders – What’s REAL motorcycle adventure travel?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most motorcycle riders are familiar with the “Long Way” series with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. If you’re not, the three seasons where the duo travels round<\/em>, down<\/em> and up<\/em> the world on motorcycles are an inspiration for many motorcyclists. The series is very well filmed, fun to watch, and, even if you’re not into motorcycling, definitely binge worthy in my book!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one critique that the ‘Long Way’ series always gets is that these are not real<\/em> adventures, because all their gear (including the bikes) is being sponsored, they have a team helping them prepare, and on the road they have 2 support cars with a doctor, security specialist and small film crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less of an adventure?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While all this is true, does it make it less of an adventure? In my opinion it does NOT! Is it different from what most of us do? In some ways sure, but in the most essential ways not! Did Ewan and Charley not ride all these miles, did they not do these deep and sometimes scary river crossings, did they not suffer on some of the worst sand, mud and clay roads? Did they not pick up their own bikes after coming off? Did they not do their own road side fixes when the bike broke down? Did they not meet wonderful people along the way? Did they not go (wild) camping? Were they not invited to share food and a roof with locals? Will they not remember this for the rest of their lives? Did they not fulfil their dreams?… Of course they did all of these things, just like anyone else traveling the world on a motorcycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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source: longwayup.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In fact there are only two differences between Ewan and Charley and most other motorcycle travellers. (1) They filmed it professionally and shared their adventures with the world (2) They had the financial means to outsource preparation and mitigate risk, like arranging visas and carnets, having support vehicles with spare parts, a doctor and security specialist. I guess…the real question is… would it have been more of an adventure without these things? Hmmmm… let’s see…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season 1 – Long Way Round<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Looking back at Long Way Round (2004) I can think of only one situation where the ‘luxury’ of having a support team made it less adventures, and that’s the river crossings on the road of bones to reach Magadan, where the support team had arranged a big offroad truck to carry the motorcycles (and support vehicle) over the water. Would it have been more adventures without that truck? Probably, but it would have definitely been more dangerous. And that’s exactly what the support team was for. To mitigate risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season 2 – Long Way Down<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For Long Way Down (2007) I honestly can not think of any situation where having the support team made the trip less adventurous. In fact, there were two situations where the support team made the trip more<\/em> adventurous. The first when one of the vehicles tipped over and the second where the support vehicles had difficulty crossing a big pool of mud in Kenya. That’s not to say that more ‘drama’ equals more adventure, but often these are the moments we remember best. In this situation, where everyone was helping to get the cars across, the viewer can see the team dynamics changing. From that moment on there’s no longer two motorcycles. In stead there’s just one team consisting of a bunch of guys with 3 motorcycles and 2 cars, going on the same adventure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season 3 – Long Way Up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At the moment of writing, only the first 3 episodes of Long Way Up (2019) are out. Season 3 is a bit different because of the electric component. Ewan and Charley are riding Harley Davidson Livewires and the support team is driving two Rivian trucks. Already two times a mobile diesel generator had to be called upon because the bikes ran out of power with no way to charge. Is this a luxury other motorcycle adventurers wouldn’t have? Yes! But then again, I don’t think any other motorcycle adventurer would even think about riding an electric bike through big stretches of ‘nothing’ in Patagonia. Choosing to go electric ads a whole other challenge to motorcycle adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long Way vs YouTube<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

16 years ago in 2004, Ewan and Charley were a bit of pioneers in filming their adventure. With the movie-like production of their first and second journey, they brought adventure motorcycling to the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were not the first motorcycle travellers though. There are many who did it before, but in pr\u00e9 YouTube times, how big was the audience that could be reached? There were only books, magazines, newspaper and only in the late 90s the odd blog started popping up. Here’s an interview between Sam Manicom (himself quite famous in the motorcycle adventure world) and Ted Simon (the godfather of motorcycle overlanding as they call him), who rode the world solo starting almost 50 years ago, in 1973. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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