Is The 'Long Way' Back For Good?

It’s proving quite a week for TV motoring adventure ‘farewells’. Around the same time that the Top Gear/The Grand Tour trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May ‘dropped’ a teaser trailer of their final Grand Tour film (which is available in September), comes more news about the latest ‘Long Way’ TV motorcycling travelogue franchise from biking/acting buddies Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.

You know: they of the ‘Long Way Round’ from – yikes – 20 years ago, when the duo rode a pair of BMW R1150 GSAs around the globe, creating one of motorcycling’s great TV adventures in turn fuelling the whole adventure bike phenomenon.

They also of the succeeding ‘Long Way Down’ in 2007 when they rode a pair of R1200 GSAs from John O’Groats to Cape Town, credibly, but much less memorably.

And they most recently of 2020’s ‘Long Way Up’, when the duo took a pair of Harley LiveWire electric bikes from Argentina to Los Angeles and which... I didn’t even bother watching at all.

This time, though, I’m actually quite excited. Here’s why:

The original ‘Long Way Round’ was brilliant: two inexperienced innocents taking on a challenge we’ve all dreamed of and presenting it warts and all. It was a tale of naivety, discovery, failure and success all bonded by a genuine friendship and wrapped up in spectacular global landscape. The same sort of stuff, in fact, that defines Top Gear/The Grand Tour at its best.

The ‘Long Way Down’ was never going to be as good. No longer innocents, with better bikes and a lesser, less dream-like challenge, the jeopardy and much of the discovery was gone, and by the time McGregor’s (now ex) wife joined them for the final leg into Cape Town I felt like I was paying for their posh holiday.

While, as for the ‘Long Way Up’, without ever having wanted to watch it, all I can say is, for me, the whole premise was flawed and futile from the outset. Two electric bikes on an endurance ride? The one thing they can’t do? Harley presumably paid them, that’s why and, worse, the bikes were also reportedly heavily modified and had a massive support crew to get round their flaws. On top of that, the ‘challenge’ itself – south Argentina to LA – without wishing to devalue the distance or terrain, seemed fairly pointless and wasn’t a patch on the scale of previous adventures.

This time round, though, it’s different – or at least it looks like it could be.

Although the exact premise for the journey still hasn’t the compelling clarity of the original – The Long Way Round was London to New York the ‘long way round’, overland through Europe, Asia and America, whereas the new Long Way Home is from McGregor’s house in Scotland to Boorman’s in England via ‘10,000 miles of Scandinavia, and Eastern and Central Europe’, there’s still enough to intrigue and tantalize.

First, they’re not doing it on brand new, manufacturer-provided bikes, instead using their preference of classics. Although the bikes are not specifically identified or attributed so far, in the promotional blurb McGregor, a lifetime Moto Guzzi fan with an extensive collection and an ambassador for the Italian brand for the last decade, is pictured aboard what appears to be an early ‘70s Guzzi Eldorado/California, with Charley on what looks like a mildly modded BMW air-head boxer /5 series from the same era.

Both clearly have some sort of bond with their respective rider (which wasn’t the case with the LiveWires), so helping the story. And both, too, are unlikely to be 100% reliable or be supported by a fleet of identical replacements, which should add to the jeopardy and, er, ‘entertainment’. What could possibly go wrong?

Second, for more Euro-centric types, the route they’re planning is likely to have more meaning and interest, too. Personally, I’m far more interested in the stories and history of eastern and central Europe than a dusty desert drag through Namibia or the Argentine pampas.

And third, and maybe it’s me, but there seems something more personal and conclusive about this adventure, too. It’s called Long Way HOME. We’re being taken on a journey from their homes, on their personal bikes, with an inference that we’ll discover more about Mssrs McGregor and Boorman along the way than maybe we did previously...

No, at 10,000 miles compared to LWR’s 30K+, it’s not as grand or ambitious as the original, but then, 20 years on, the two are now no spring chickens and have far more lived experience to tell. And no, with ‘two rusty old bikes’ (as they call them), they’re unlikely to fuel a classic bike boom in the same way LWR accelerated adventure bikes.

But, for me, that’s fine. Seeing a couple of 50-somethings fanny around on old bikes across Europe on a Sunday night is now far more up my street than going to Ouagadougou by something sci-fi and sponsored. Maybe it’ll be more up yours, too.