The winter nights, with my bike wrapped up for a few months, I now have a chance to watch the Long Way Up series on Apple TV+. This is a great series, a follow up to the Long Way Round and Long Way Down where Ewan and Charley were riding BMW GS’s this time they are riding the Harley Davidson Live Wire Electric bikes up through South America all the way to Los Angeles. Claudio is riding behind on a Sportster and Russ and co. In Electric cars. I have to say I’m really enjoying this, and really impressed with the Harleys. At the time, the bikes were late prototypes, now in production and available to buy from your local dealer. I’m tempted to take one out for a test ride in the new year. I’m interested to see both bikes have been Adventure ‘modded’ with the rear end jacked up for taller and beefier suspension, with light weight soft luggage too.
The bikes are not without a few problems though, mostly with a limited range especially in cold weather but to be fair they are standing up well to other stresses and strains along the way. Many people out there always bemoan the fact these guys have a back up crew and a limitless pot of money to influence them through countries. Some suggest for these reasons it’s not a real adventure at all. It’s funny how those who never ride much further than the local Cafe meet for late afternoon tea and a scone in ‘Bourton on the Water’ always come out with the usual sneers about this not being a proper adventure. Too many of the ‘moany’ old misers are usually the first to say if they had their money and backup team I could do that too. Well, I know some of these doubters and sure they couldn’t and certainly wouldn’t. What I do see on this series is very skilful riding on the kind of loose surface in all weathers, way worse than your average ‘shitty’ B road lane found in the UK. You can’t fake the riding skills, it’s all there to see on screen regardless of the back up team.
I’m also enjoying the amazing scenery, the usual UNICEF ambassador cause where they are visiting under privileged kids and some of the challenges they face following how the back up crew Russ and co. are getting along in their electric 4x4 Rivian truck prototypes too. There’s some great tech’ in all of the vehicles, and although I don’t see us all switching to electric motorcycles anytime soon because of the initial cost (the LiveWire retails around £26K), I do believe in the technology and some of the problems being solved - energy recovery and tow charging to name a few. Perhaps the most interesting point to come out of the series is how it highlights the difficulties in trying to remain ‘green’ throughout the journey and completely ditch the fossil fuels completely.
Of course many will say the bikes aren’t real motorbikes, and they’ll say with all of that technology to go wrong and not being able to fix it yourself by the side of the road in a ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ way it somehow diminishes the quality of the motorcycle experience. I say leave these critics to their narrow minded view, I’ll keep enjoying how a team of adventurers attempt to push the boundaries of exploration using what is proving to be a fascinating concept and an excellent series watching two mates try something a bit different for a change. Well done Charley and Ewan, yet another great motorcycle series and I do like the new style Belstaff jackets too!
