Excellent flick: "Long Way Round"

Watch a couple of bike-fanatic actors take absurdly heavy bikes through some foreign terrain, with a lot of neat human interaction as well as some conflicts with mechanical reality!

A great way to wile away the cold, wet evenings, and plan for next summer!

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Way-Round-Ewan-McGregor/dp/B004DP7S9E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321941661&sr=8-1

There is a follow on series to this one called "Long Way Down" that goes from the northern area of the UK, down to Cape Town. It is equally as good...

Yes, that was a good series. I watched it about 5 years ago.

Long Way Down was not as good as "Round".

But I did like the 3rd series - Charley Boorman: Race To Dakar. It gives you a pretty good insight what it actually takes to enter the Dakar.

Long way round was the better series, watch the first 3 or so episodes, and wonder how hard KTM kicked themselves, and they should be kicking themselves still, BMW GS are HOT here :-D

mrgeoff wrote:

and wonder how hard KTM kicked themselves, and they should be kicking themselves still, BMW GS are HOT here :-D

It makes you wonder if KTM really thought their bikes wouldn't make the trip or they would receive negative press in regards to their reliability.

I dunno. KTM has better dirt credentials than BMW, IMO. The Bimmer actually broke at one point...

motocrossmann wrote:

I dunno. KTM has better dirt credentials than BMW, IMO. The Bimmer actually broke at one point...

It's not a matter of having more dirt credentials. But true or not, KTM has always had to deal with questions about their reliability. If they would have sponsored this ride and their bikes had many problems, it would not have done their reputation any good. That's all I'm saying.

Walter Matthau wrote:

Watch a couple of bike-fanatic actors take absurdly heavy bikes through some foreign terrain, with a lot of neat human interaction as well as some conflicts with mechanical reality!

A great way to wile away the cold, wet evenings, and plan for next summer!

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Way-Round-Ewan-McGregor/dp/B004DP7S9E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321941661&sr=8-1

Thanks for posting this! Just ordered the complete set (you have to look around Amazon for it). My future TV viewing is looking up!

Thank you for posting this! I just watched two episodes and I love it. What an adventure.

BTW - you can watch this entire series on youtube

Wow, glad to see so many people enjoy it. Everybody must be in the same "biker purgatory" season...

Builder Bob; I enjoyed your Alaska blog. Sounds like the way to do a trip; let somebody else worry about the gear. If my neck keeps improving like it's been doing, I'm hoping to do some type of "big trip" next summer. Much as I romanticize former camping exploits, I think I'm gonna stick with hotel-hopping, and leave those teen memories in the sepia-filtered memory file.

Walter Matthau wrote:

Wow, glad to see so many people enjoy it. Everybody must be in the same "biker purgatory" season...

Builder Bob; I enjoyed your Alaska blog. Sounds like the way to do a trip; let somebody else worry about the gear. If my neck keeps improving like it's been doing, I'm hoping to do some type of "big trip" next summer. Much as I romanticize former camping exploits, I think I'm gonna stick with hotel-hopping, and leave those teen memories in the sepia-filtered memory file.

LOL. I gave up camping a long time ago. Much prefer a comfy bed, hot shower and a warm breakfast prepared by somebody else!

Make plans for next Summer. I'm going to Ireland.

I'm probably one of the few and just being a young curmudgeon about it, but I did not care for LWR. Every other page seemed to be whining and pining for home mixed with how hard it is for a movie star to travel anonymously with a massive caravan of handlers on a massively overloaded bike in some of the poorest parts of the world. They started to get the idea in Mongolia when they realized they didn't need most of the crap they had on the bikes and I think maybe started to realize the crew idea wasn't the best for actual travel and immersion...

But I still read the damn thing cover to cover in a few days and started planning a RTW trip that will never happen so I guess I'm just being jealousy.

I prefer Mondo Enduro to be honest. It has the spirit of a true adventure and its just a bunch of guys like us going on a crazy round the wold trip with barely any money and without any fancy equipment.


The Long Way series isn't bad, it just hasn't got that adventure feel because you know there is always a crew and truck around to help you out with thousands of dollars of equipment and such. Anyway still a great watch!

if anybody hasn't seen it yet, I highly recommend Mondo Enduro!

trav72 wrote:

motocrossmann wrote:

I dunno. KTM has better dirt credentials than BMW, IMO. The Bimmer actually broke at one point...

It's not a matter of having more dirt credentials. But true or not, KTM has always had to deal with questions about their reliability. If they would have sponsored this ride and their bikes had many problems, it would not have done their reputation any good. That's all I'm saying.

The beemers were far from perfect. That ABS incident really makes ya think about electronics integration on any bike.

Chrispy1200 wrote:

The beemers were far from perfect. That ABS incident really makes ya think about electronics integration on any bike.

I agree. I don't think I would want it on any bike I regularly took off road. The simpler the better.

Hey guys if you like this series may I recommend 'Mondo Enduro' as well. It's a movie about a round the world trip on DR350SE's and it's very good. They also have a sequel called 'Terra Cerca' but I preferred the first.

I'd be lying if I said LWR wasn't a big motivator to taking my WR to Magadan last summer.