Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman Are Back Riding Bikes Around the World, Thankfully

Leave it to Ewan and Charley to plot a 10,000-mile route between Scotland and London.

Photo by: realscreen

Robbie Bacon

By: Robbie Bacon

Aug 14, 2024 at 7:25am ET

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The Quickshift

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are back on our screens with a new installment to the Long Way franchise on Apple TV+
The adventure, starting at McGregor's house in Scotland and finishing at Charley's in London, is around 10,000 miles long
Gone are electric bikes in favor of refurbished vintage motorcycles

Electric bikes have their time and place. I am not against them. In fact, I can't wait for Can-Am to launch its upcoming electric models and I think we're ready for an OEM to take a stab at making an electric superbike... cough, Yamaha, cough. But when I heard the Long Way franchise was coming back, less the electric Harley or any electric bikes for that matter, I was delighted.

When I watch a motorcycle adventure docuseries, I want the diversity of tackling foreign, difficult, beautiful terrain, and being introduced to new places and ways of living and the myriad of wonderful emotions and difficult decisions that come with all that. I enjoyed a lot about the Long Way Up and love what the lads were able to do for charging infrastructure in Latin America, but it was a far cry from the first two seasons for me, with range anxiety being an overbearing theme.

But the latest installment in the franchise looks to be a world apart from the Long Way Up, in terms of machinery. And I'll need your help to work out exactly what bikes are being used, but that's for later.

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are back at it again, but this time they'll be riding refurbished vintage motorcycles from McGregor's home near Perth, Scotland to Boorman's in London, England. And if you think that sounds a little too simple for the lads, you'd be absolutely correct. They've made a 453-mile trip into an adventure spanning more than 10,000 miles.

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Instead of just heading south from McGregor's home in Scotland, the duo will point their wheels toward the North Sea, to Scandinavia. From there, they'll head up to the Artic Circle, down to the Baltics, and through continental Europe, before going back over the English Channel to finish at Charley's house in London. The trip is expected to take around two months.

Boorman and McGregor are executive producers and will once again work alongside David Alexanian and Russ Malkin. Apple TV+ revived the franchise in 2020 with the Long Way Up and is behind this latest edition.

As best I can work out, Boorman is riding a BMW R model from the late 60s/early 70s and McGregor is on a Moto Guzzi California II. But I hope the anoraks will throw on their cloaks and come to my rescue. Can anyone give a definitive answer as to what R model Charley is riding—possibly a 75/5? And if McGregor isn't on a California II, then what is it?