Although it is not how I would travel, I enjoyed long way down. If someone offered to pay me to do such a trip I too would act by their script (which is what McGragor & Boorman are doing after all - they are making a TV programme).

While watching the last episode Mrs MarkE had an interesting suggestion though; why not encourage Mrs Boorman to take her test (if necessary) and let the ladies do the next trip? They would definately bring a different perspective to the journey.

I like Mrs MarkE her idea. Why not send the BBC an e-mail with that suggestion ?
And maybe Mrs MarkE wants to join the ladies team ;-)

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

No-one would watch it if those women did it. No-one has heard of them. Thats why the concept of "celebrity " is so crap. Its not the journey, it's those shallow nobodies called "celebrities". which causes interest. Look at the many bikers who have travelled Africa...no-one's clamouring to make a film.

Also, Eve isnt up to the task. No blame there. She seems to be there just to meet her husband, which is fine, but she seems to have little interest in m/cycle travel. She seemed to be a bit of a nuisance and a party pooper.......

Well I liked it, not as much as I liked Long Way Round, but that's because it seemed a bit rushed - and that's not really their fault, it's whichever commisioning editor asked for 6 one-hour programmes, no doubt there's hours of extra footage which could have been used.

As for the fire, come on guys it's TV, they didn't leave the fire burning, they (or more likely Claudio/Russ/David/Jimmy) decided it'd be a nice shot of them riding with the camera angle looking through the smoke and flames, so they shot it like that, probably even did a number of takes, and no doubt all stamped on all the embers at the end - get real, it's TV.

And the support crew? No doubt half of that was a condition of the insurance brokers who were a condition of the production getting any comminsioning money etc. The rest? Well can you really fit all that tape stock, and various TV quality video cameras, and editing facilities etc on the back of a bike? Methinks not. Then Claudio's bike breaks and has to be trailered, so of course we're going to see the support vehicles closer in, because they become then only camera vehicles. And so it goes on.

Whatsmore, I don't doubt for a second that either of them love bikes, love riding, and take every opportunity to get away from it all for a day or week whatever, with no-one but themselves.

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+1

I totally agree with all you say - couldn't have put it better meself.

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Right Way Round ...

The cheque, as always is in the post, mate.

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I agre whith most of you and I was a bit sickend by all the free stuff they had, its not like they could not aford anything. I only saw bits of the program. Most of us have to work long houres 7 days a week just to afford to go off for a month or two on the bikes and start saving again as soon as we come back for the next one. I would love if I was given a few Snap On tools and would carefuly look after them for the rest of my life(I realy dont think they apreceated what they where given). I could go on like this for some time but its been said allready so I won't. I just want to reminde pepole what they set out to do, and that was to make a program to put on tv that was going to entertain the most pepole. Most pepole dont ride bikes, dont travel unles its to a resort in spain or somwhere like that and most dont know the first thing about bike's. So although I hated the program myself (I admit its more to do whith jelasy than anything else), its probably done the world of bikeing more good than harm when it comes to the majority of the public that dont ride. Do as I, swhich it off when it became to much. One more thing, that american was a d### ####.

What it has done is reinforced into the publics minds that bikers are Fart-Lighting, foul-Mouthed, wheelie Crazy idiots!! an Image we have been trying to get away from!!!!!!!!

Martyn

Sorry mate but, It sounds like you are a car driver with a bike.

Nothing at all wrong with going camping with your mates and pulling a few wheelies on route. Sitting round a camp fire talking bollocks, farting, belching and swearing, are all natural bi-products of drinking.

Charley is the one that's got it right. Ewan is just too touchy/feely/girly/anal for me.

John

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Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

[quote=Redboots;162789)

Nothing at all wrong with going camping with your mates and pulling a few wheelies on route. Sitting round a camp fire talking bollocks, farting, belching and swearing, are all natural bi-products of drinking.

John[/quote]




I don't drink so what can my excuse be for this kind of behaviour ?

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

Cannabis or being a vegetarian?

Just a wild stab in the dark you understand...

John

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Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

sorry Redboots, been a Biker all my life, hate cars, I DONT OWN ONE, only passed car test cos its handy, ride 365, even when I was in the UK ( winter on a Wildstar was fun in the ice!)
I love pulling wheelies, ( I own an XT600 for goodness sake....) have lit the odd fart myself BUT I dont pull wheelies on main roads, in front of kids, pedestrians, crowds... places where if I SCREW UP and fall off SOMEONE ELSE gets hurt.
The point I was making was that this guy posted this..... and I disagreed with him,

Originally Posted by rhunjones
its probably done the world of bikeing more good than harm when it comes to the majority of the public that dont ride.



Idid not say it wasnt OK to pull wheelies, light farts, belch, swear, etc if you wanna do that its up to you. all I was saying is that to the general public the non bike riding plebs, it makes ALL bikers look like Mr C. Boorman, because the general public being lemmings, believe everything they see on the damn TV! and therefore tar us ALL WITH THE SAME BRUSH!!!!!!!

OK

This whole thing of turning them into bad guys has just got my goat.
I should think there are far more dangerous things in Africa than one guy pulling wheelies.

Do you remember when Barry Sheene was champion? Same thing used to happen. All the anti-Sheene, (and anti-Stephanie), used to really piss me off. Jealousy??

As far as tar and brushes goes, its always been like that and no amount of PC will change it so I never subscribed to it. Now if "they" made ALL drivers take a motorcycle test before being allowed in a car/truck/bus, that might change things... but I digress....

John

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Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

Good point John. Thanks for the "wakeup call". I've been an office slave for to long I'm afraid. It's time for a bike trip to get back to reality. :-)

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

My personal homepage with trip reports: https://www.krijtenburg.nl/
YouTube channel (that I do together with one of my sons): motormobilist.nl

What is it with all this Charley and Ewan bashing? At the risk of repeating myself (I posted on the OTHER Charley and Ewan thread) has everybody missed the point?

I watched the last 3 episodes back to back last night because I thought I'd been watching some other series. So much criticism from so many - why did you take the time & effort to watch the series (and in some cases take the time to download it) in the first place? Are you not rational enough to realise this is a show, featuring showmen, produced by a production company for the masses? Do you believe everything the papers and politicians tell you as well? Where is this programme advertised as a show exclusively for adventure motorcyclists and who are we to define what makes an adventure motorcyclist?

I find it interesting that the general theme that runs through this thread is about Charley's antics. Almost 200 posts and only half a dozen vague references to the charity work they did.

Not one mention of:

• the terminally ill children and their families at the Hospice in Scotland;
• the mass murder of 5,000 people in one day at the church in Rwanda - killed by machete's, hammers, guns and burnt alive - all the skulls (one with a spear still embedded and others smashed in) and bloodied clothes of those victims still there - a stark contrast to the Church of Bones;
• the children kidnapped from their families at an early age, some as young as 3, and forced to fight against and beat to death their fellow villagers if they didn't conform - children killing children;
• the boys who are circumcised without anaesthetic and being forbidden to display any sort of emotion or pain for fear of bringing shame upon their family;
• the mass murder at the school of all those tiny innocent children and the horrific wounds from bullets and machetes of the surviving children;
• the orphans who have lost their parents to HIV and Aids;
• the medics they had with them who tended the woman who had given birth the day before, or the guy with severe diarrhoea who had collapsed.

Was Charley's fart-lighting and wheelie-pulling that much more memorable!!!!!!!!!!!! There's more whinging on this thread than the entire series of LWR, RTD or LWD.

Personally I was disappointed with the first episode and yes, at the end of the series, Charley was the apparent cause of Claudio's accident. We all make mistakes. I'm not sure about Eve joining them. My riding partner is my husband so I can understand Ewan and Eve wanting to be together, but at the same time, Charley must have been gutted. It added a different dimension to the episode.

The series for me wasn't just about how they got from A to B or how they did it, it was also about the work they do with the charities and seeing the countries they visited along the way. They are famous, they are showman and they are utilising their status to bring awareness to the rest of the world the plight of some of these nations. Who knew Rwanda had a tourist industry - I didn't.

You may not like Charley and Ewan, for whatever reason, and sadly perhaps much of that is based upon how they come across thanks to the media and not because they are known on a personal level. Have some humanity and please, before your next criticism of them, or your insults at the people who don't agree with your views, can you put your hand on your heart and say that you have raised over £500k (and still rising) for charity for 3 months work? I would think that UNICEF, as well as the Children’s Hospice Association of Scotland and Riders For Health are pretty appreciative of what they've done both in terms of money raised and the heightened awareness to their causes. Who cares how they did it - they did it.