If I can say my opinion, I really don't understand where all this anger against McGregor and Boorman comes from.
I agree with the ones who say that all of this circus that travelled with them is sometimes ridiculous but I really cannot share all this hatred that I read against them.

I myself travel overland, and I'd never request a class for dealing with customs, I always obtained my Visas by myslef or with the assistance of my local travel agency, I spend months reading HUBB / ADV searching for the info I need and I'd never want that other would choose the route for me, BUT... if those two guys needed or wanted to do like this, what do you care?

Who are you to judge the way a motorcycle rider acts?

I enjoyed watching the entire LWR and LWD with my girlfriend, everytime with a couple of s and some chips, and I took it under my point of view: a good and well built show that has nothing to do with the REAL adventure motorcycling but that maybe had the merit to show me some places I'll never reach astride my bike and (who knows) might have pushed somebody to leave the idea of motorcycling around home only and extend his own mental horizons to some other places.

Live and let live, guys!

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Nick and his 2010 Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré

I call for the hubb to have its very category JUST for LWR/LWD, Ewan & Charlie threads and topics...

That way anyone who actually gives a crap can argue all day and night about it without clogging up the Hubb with it..

What say thee admin ???

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

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Nick and his 2010 Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré

Magically, in their wisdom, they already have a category - it's called..... a thread. You don't have to read a thread if you don't want to. And if you read it, you don't have to comment on it. Neat, huh? This is a sophisticated site, catering for all needs, y'know? Why do you want others (mods/admin) to have special categories for you, and more work?

But TT, thou do readeth such threads, so thou "give a crap". No worries there. Go for it, Tour@Ted.

I can't deny I have a punt now and then......

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Must try harder....1/10

Why do I care what other motorcyclists do?
1) Because of certain Harley riders (and sport-bike riders) California is now enforcing a strict Exhaust Ordinance.

2) Because of the Billy Lane and Jesse James many people think motorcyclists are drunk neanderthals that have no civic conscience

3) Ppeople go out and Buy 100,000 plus R1200GS because they have a hard on for E&C, and so Yamaha, and Honda, A Triumph build theses useless off road, Gigantic motorcycles instead of making an actually great bike.

Imagine if Kawasaki put its parallel twin from the Versys in a KLR type frame
Imagine if Honda kept making a real dual sport version of the transalp.
How great would it be if yamaha made an 800 tenere in a 660xt chasis. Or if suzuki made the Wee-Strom actually offroad availabe.

There is not hate, just frustration that these guys are, and want to be, ambassadors for the endeavor I love so much.

BTW, when a group is such a minority as we are, and one that is not overwhelmingly respected by the majority out there, everything that a fellow motorcyclist does effects all of us (at least in the developed world).

That being said I can't wait to watch Long way down

[quote

That being said I can't wait to watch Long way down[/quote]



Why ?

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

You have a point there with point 3. I'm still waiting for a 300 pound adventure bike for after the one that I'm building dies.

But really people. Get it right. It's Charlie and Ewan. Better rider always comes first.

I can't decide which one I love best. Got to admit, all that intimacy makes me a bit jealous of Ewan. I mean, Charlie has something special about him. And it's not that rug muffin he used to have below his bottom lip. Can't put my finger on it.
I do know that when I saw it the first time I went straight on ebay to buy a Touratech catalogue. Jeez they got some good stuff in there. Even for small bikes like the F650 and Transalp.

Anyway, I think you'z all are a bit disrespectfull calling them by their first name. Just because their friends and I do so doesn't mean you all can.

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Tacos Tyring Travels.com

Never heard of 'em, maybe we could have a thread or twelve to discuss?



Andy

So what?
If you are a good person with civic conscience, what do you care?

Over the past years here in north Italy we had some fights between Hell's Angels and Bandidos with use of fireweapons, and many people began to think that ALL Harley riders are criminals, drug dealers and hooligans.
Do you think that I traded my Harley in for this? No.

Everytime I was pulled over by police for some document controls I have been always let go with a smile and "have a good trip".
And this is enough for me.

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Nick and his 2010 Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré

Going back to the OP.

To make a series that people, anyone not just overlanders or adventure riders or motorcyclists, (after all there are other people out there, lest we forget) will watch, it has to be appealing to the masses.

I don't think they did a bad job of making the LWD and LWR entertaining, even if you don't like the characters. I mean strictly speaking it wasn't a documentary and it wasn't a TV Soap so it's at best a bit of a hack.

Let me put it another way, if you were creating a TV Series would you bogg it down with heavy facts about where and when to get visas, who can ship parts to Usbekistan or Mongolia within 2days or other diplomatic/administrative headaches?? Well if you did then you wouldn't keep your audience for very long.

LWD & LWR are what they are, that is to say it's not real life. It's what a producer and his buddies wanted people to see and a lot of people have watched them dispite their obvious flaws and illusions. The simple fact is that they succeeded (with a full camera crew and 5 tonnes of parts they never used), the proof is that people are still talking (read posting) about them!!!

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

I quote every single word!

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Nick and his 2010 Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré

We may well be having a documentary about 'Team Half Baked Pizza', which is partially designed as the anti-thesis to the Long Way x series'. The show will follow us as we get a few hundred quids worth of old step-through bikes from Domino's pizza, scab together some equipment and sell off everything we own to go desert racing in January 2012 (we have ended up in the 'racing' category of the Budapest to Bamako Rally......).

This should have it all, race-pace off-road stages, a shoestring budget and a team of people that have been described as everything from 'clueless' to 'demented'. It should be the opposite of the LWR in terms of factory backing/support/budget but it certainly wouldn't be getting any interest from the TV networks if it wasn't for Charlie and Ewans massive success with this subject matter.

I might not like the amount of A-road warriors that are now fully decked out in a Rally II suit and everything they could buy from Touratech, but I thank C&E for bringing adventure motorcycling to a point in the public perception where it has some mass appeal.

If you don't like the perception the public now has of 'us' following the adventures of C&E then there's only one option - get on the telly yourself and redress the balance!

Oh the show is incredibly entertaining, it is just that neither of these guys, especially Ewen. should be advising anybody about anything that has to do with motorcycles. He knows virtually nothing about them and yet proselytizes a lot. That being said he seems to be a genuinely good man who loves his family and takes care of them.

I don't care if you don't know much about motorcycles or riding, but then don't pretend that you do, and don't insult me by telling me how "perfect the BMWs were and they were the only bikes that would have made it, and that the KTMs would have fallen apart"

The truth is there is no way I could have made a TV series even watchable let alone as good as what these guys made. This is just a buddy series. Which again is fine