The "Long Way" series -more harm than good?

Ok....enough all ready...NOT AGAIN.....

I wasn't introduced to adventure riding by Ewan and Charlie

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/geckoracing/3230416747/" title="Life before &quot;Long Way Down&quot; by i90si, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3379/3230416747_f241cdf5eb_o.jpg" width="661" height="511" alt="Life before &quot;Long Way Down&quot;" /></a>

but I do ride a big GS and I find it the best touring bike currently available.

I loved the series but perhaps not as much as I loved that full set of Snap On tools Charlie was given

Claudio von Planta is the real hero of that trip, IMHO. Cool guy, fearless rider and excellent cameraman.

I thought LWR was a good thing, all in all. It certainly helped me to 'set the bar' in terms of my own aspirations, such as they are. Do I want to ride in Mongolia? Yes, I do. Do I want to get eaten alive by mosquitos on the Road of Bones? No, I don't (I'm susceptible ).

I'm convinced that KTM took the route of least pain by withdrawing; the potential negative publicity if their bikes had failed would have been devastating to them. Should E & C gone with TT39s - adapted F650GSs - instead? Maybe. Certainly the F800GS, had it been available, might have been a better option for LWD; lighter so easier to pick up in the sand.

LWR was fun. LWD lost the plot a little and if there's to be a LWU (Ushuaia to Prudhoe Bay) I hope they get back more to the riding experience and less to the 'drama' of the trip.

These look interesting:

I didn't see LWR when it was on the TV so it really didn't have any influence over my choice of getting the 12GS Adv. I just liked it because it was BIG, ugly and had a big tank range since I hate trying to find a gas station in the middle of nowhere
But after reading about Nick Sanders's trips on his Yamaha R1 I started to consider meself a wuss.....so I traded in the GSA for an K12S and now I'm going to Mongolia on it......yeah, right
I must admit though that Nick Sanders was the reason why I started looking into a more sports oriented bike since I had terrible lower back pains from riding the GS and now I'm on my 5'Th day of owning the K1200S and have no more pain and I can actually walk when I get off the bike

To say that Ewan and Charley did a disservice to motorcycling and adventuring is quite narrowminded, isn't it?!

What? The OP? Narrowminded?

Surely you jest.


Mornin' VFR. I couldn't resist.

Narrow-minded

I think I often cause a few narrow-minded people to flip out over what I've said. Everyone's opinions are all equally invalid...

I kinda liked this fishing trip even though BMW guys do tend to be an easy catch. They aren't quite as easy to bait as Harley guys. But close.

It had both good and bad impact on off-road riding depending on what you want out of off-road riding. Simply depends on what you want. Seems like the OP is unhappy people have become interested in what used to be (and still largely is) a niche activity out of the mainstream. It is like when emo kids are into indy bands and they 'sell out' leaving the emo kid all alone ( ) because he can't possibly be interested in something that more than a handful of eccentrics are into.

On the other hand, it has brought an immense amount of money into the off-road market which actually helps develop better gear, etc for everyone. As for flocking to the BMW dealers and then whipping out a touratech or wunderlich catalogue- whatever floats their boat. Not everyone has the coin to drop on those things but they make some good products for what they are designed for.

It's a TV show fer cryin' out loud. And it is largely about motorcycling and the adventure that accompanies our little hobby. Finally, there's no raked out cherry flamed ape hanging "lifestyle" choppers to be seen.

What's not to like?


EDIT: I actually forgot all about the OCC visit in the last episode. I guess I mentally blocked that part out. Oh well, there were VERY FEW raked out cherry flamed ape hanging "lifestyle" choppers during the episode run.

In my opinion it has made more people aware of motorcycling as a normal, fun, inoffensive hobby. There have been lots of shows/movies/popular culture painting motorcyclists as hell-raisers. I don't mind the possibility that the movie helped portray us as everyday folk simply out looking for adventures. Personally, I don't like being treated by folks negatively just because I ride a motorcycle.

As far as the whole super-huge land-yacht motorcycle phenom, I don't think it's a bad thing. If people like it they should go for it. I've often thought about it myself - but I prefer smaller more nimble bikes.

Agreed. I think I read in the book that most of Claudio's two-wheel riding experience previous to LWA was on scooters. To do that trip, on those bikes and shoot video is simply amazing.

Hard not to like a couple of guys that are so passionate about motorcycles. Creating awareness for UNICEF is admirable as well.

This coming weekend will be my one month "anniversary" riding. Watching LWA and reading ADV Rider was the inspiration for me to learn to ride and get my license and a bike!

I don't understand people's disdain for LWR and LWD. I find them immensely enjoyable to watch. I think I've watched each 4 times. I don't care that they're rich, I don't care that they're actors, I don't care they have a support crew. I enjoy the bits with Russ and Dave and the 4x4's - after all there on an expedition as well when you think about it.

Charlie's a pretty decent off-roader - watch his spin-off series "Race to Dakar" that's good stuff too. He tried to race Dakar so give him a break.

I agree with the previous poster - I believe it painted motorcyclists in a very positive light. That A. cool motorcycles don't have to be Choppers. B. Motorcycles are a great hobby and make for great adventures. These are two guys who immensely love motorcycling. You get a good sense of their passion for it. They have families and kids. They wore the gear that we all like to see.

Of course they're going to have support vehicles. They're trying to make a broadcast quality tv series here. You simply can't do that by carrying a couple of cheap no-name flash video cameras from Best Buy. In the book they talk about the decision path they went down to go from "lets ride around the world" to "lets ride around the world and make a broadcast quality tv documentary out of it".

The bulk of the series shows the off-road stuff obviously because that makes for the best TV. Story is typically better when there is drama and struggle. Not much drama in watching them drone down the highway for days on end.

I think about their trip and even with the long stretchs of bad road / no road riding they had to do, the bulk of their trip was still on pavement. So in my opinion they chose a good bike for the job. In the series they only talk about KTM as the other choice (again that was good drama), but in the book they also talked about how they looked at the Tenere, Africa Twin, Varadero (I think) and others. When you look at the nature of their trip: long stretches of highway, some off-road, some bad-road, carry lots of crap - the GS is kind of a natural choice.

Somebody in this thread mentioned the problems they had with the bikes. The rear frames cracked which they admitted could've have been caused by the fact they had the bikes overload. I don't care what vehicle you are talking about but welding a frame without making sure the electronics are protected is a recipie for disaster and they admitted they didn't think about that. The shocks that blew over and over in LWD were Ohlins - go figure! No final drive failures! Woo-hoo!

Reading the books gives a little more insight into the trips. I read both.

Follow these books up by reading Ted Simon's

Eeeeexactly....and that's why it is so much fun for all when you start threads like this so it's plain for all and clear as soup that nothing you/me/we say means anything in the pig picture.

And, Dakez, I did not say VFR is narrow minded, I said that his opinions were narrow minded

Or the moron at Verizon who turned down the iphone because it would take money away from Verizon's crappy inhouse services.

If it served to entertain, and got a few more people on bikes (whether on the perfect bike or not) its a move toward goodness.

The bashing of a couple of guys who rode around the world for fun, and decided to film it for us to enjoy, grows tedious...

Yes they had support, so the DVD was a bit more 'lame'. Had they not had said support would we have a 2 DVD set to watch ? Doubtful.

So to get it straight, we prefer our adventure documentaries to encompass acts that can't adequately be documented.

Oh, and since they made it home, maybe their choice of bike wasn't SO terrible. And I have my doubts as to whether the KTM would have held up as well. Might have handled better in the tight stuff, but they did a ton of road miles we didn't see for which the BMW was better suited.

I feel like if i left ADV and came back in 5 years, there would be a fresh thread second-guessing / doubting LWD / LWR. Leave it alone already, sheesh....

I think it's a decent road bike

http://killboy.blogspot.com/2009/10/convert.html

My Ewan & Charley.



I blame Helge for doing more damage to the activity of off-road riding than any other book ever released.