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Long Way Round or Wrong Way Round?

C

Cannonball Bob

Big Landy Fan
Just been watching the opening episodes of Long Way Round on DVD.
I'd seen bits of it and always thought I must see the whole thing but have to say I'm left a little disappointed so far.
"They" seem to have had a very strange order of priorities. Eg, their first objective in the whole thing was to find some office space from where they could then pester the motorcycle manufacturers of the world for free bikes. Personally I would've thought obtaining the bikes came first. Then their was their attitude towards sponsorship, getting all uppity and almost abusive when a well known Austrian motorcycle manufacturer declined to supply bikes. A comment from one of "them"....
"How dare they!". Yeah, how dare they not give the son of a well-known film producer and the multi-million dollar Hollywood actor shiny new motorbikes. :rolleyes:
And a pair of Mitsubishi L200s.
Plus all the other kit "they" seemed to think suppliers were obliged to throw at them. Full workshop of Snap On tools, then virtually the entire Field and Trek catalogue showed up in a van...
And I simply couldn't believe my eyes and ears when they sent their (free) L200s all the way to Germany for exped prep just ONE WEEK before they were due to depart.
On top of that, the DVD shows them packing bikes and vehicles the night before they were due to leave. I don't mean last minute "let's chuck in some CDs to listen to" stuff, I mean three completely empty BMW GS 1150s, and two Mitzi L200s, and a big workshop full of camping kit and tools.
I'd love to do a trip like theirs, alas I don't have the time or cash, they have both (one of them in very good supply) yet still wanted everyone else to foot the bill on what appears to have been a very hap hazard and ill-prepared trip. The last bit I saw they were trying to enter Ukraine using, excuse me, photocopies of the vehicle docs. Day one stuff or what?
And their style of riding is a bit errrrr......interesting. I'm no bike rider but if I was, and intended going around the World, I wouldn't be popping wheelies everywhere I went, nor would I lay prone across the back panniers in a Superman-style pose whilst riding.:rolleyes:
Someone please tell me this was all for dramatic effect?
 
I read the book first and I enjoyed that but when I tried to watch it I just couldn't really get on with it at all:(

cheers, Tim
 
you never really saw their back up crew until they try to cross that river.
just goes to show , anything is possible when you have loads and loads of wonga.
i would like to see it done properly on a proper budget.
there was a program/documentary a few years ago about a fair few bikers , normal people like school teachers etc , who went around the world on bikes. most didnt make it and one didnt come back (think he got married along the way). it was way much much better than 'rich way round'.
 
This "pay for me to have a holiday" thing is the same for all the round the world sailors and walk / fly to north pole and er certain off roading trips in sand coloured Discos.
I used to know someone who did yacht races across the channel. Every year he and his mates blagged a new hull and most fittings off a load of suppliers.
And there are the TV stars doing round the world or pole to pole with a huge crew on my TV licence fee money.

Then you can extend the rant to cover so called artists getting grants to walk around in silly clothes or fill a house with concrete, even before they have won a prize for the rubbish they do.
 
baz said:
This "pay for me to have a holiday" thing is the same for all the round the world sailors and walk / fly to north pole and er certain off roading trips in sand coloured Discos.
Click to expand...
Funny you should say that. A mate I were looking at entering the Mongol Rally but in the end I found I just couldn't face the idea of asking people to sponsor us which in effect meant asking "Pay for my holiday" :(
 
baz said:
Then you can extend the rant to cover so called artists getting grants to walk around in silly clothes or fill a house with concrete, even before they have won a prize for the rubbish they do.
Click to expand...

funny you should say that , i went to the tate last week end and although some exhibits were really quite cool , some were pretty sad.
one 'artist' had put some bricks on the floor , five wide ,25 long and about knee high.
now if i waltzed into the tate modern and asked if i could use some of their space to put some bricks on the ground and show it off as art they would have a right old laugh at me.
oh and top tip , just because you like art , does not mean its cool to wear a berret and boast a pointy beard. beatnicks died off a long time ago.
 
I'm with ya there on the dissapointing bit Bob, I got the DVD for Christmas last year. I was more frustrated with all the recapping everything they done on the previous episode. If you're watching it on DVD you know what they did because you watched it 5 minutes ago!!

And by the time the recapping was over you had about 20 minutes of viewing left
Just get on with it....:(

It would have been alot more enjoyable if they'd gone into more detail about each leg of the journey, even if it meant a series twice the length.
 
nobber said:
funny you should say that , i went to the tate last week end and although some exhibits were really quite cool , some were pretty sad.
one 'artist' had put some bricks on the floor , five wide ,25 long and about knee high.
now if i waltzed into the tate modern and asked if i could use some of their space to put some bricks on the ground and show it off as art they would have a right old laugh at me.
oh and top tip , just because you like art , does not mean its cool to wear a berret and boast a pointy beard. beatnicks died off a long time ago.
Click to expand...

I've got two piles of bricks in the back garden different colours too - right £5 to have a look at them for 2 minutes, and £3.6million if you would like to buy my first piece of art :D
 
baz said:
This "pay for me to have a holiday" thing is the same for all the round the world sailors and walk / fly to north pole and er certain off roading trips in sand coloured Discos.
Click to expand...


I did a trek for Mencap a few years ago, they wanted £2500 in sponsorship from each person taking part.:eek:

I didn't realise how hard it was to go about begging for cash, I think I got them about £600 in the end
But I still got a 2 week jaunt around the Himalaya

They never chased me for the rest of the cash
 
I'm watching the DVD at the moment, I was trying to work out how they managed to put the L200 on its side.

They must've been going some and hit a rut but they must have been going way too fast.
 
Yup, saw that only last night Alane. How the hell did they do that? I mean, it was in the middle of a wide open field. They did seem to drive like tw@ts throughout though. The producer did say on camera that where the Ruskies went at 10mph there were doing 40 or 50.
ANd the bit where the L200 drove through a river and lost a box off the roofrack....looked a bit staged to me. Box wasn't even remotely tied down which struck me as a basic error. Then when they recovered it it had nothing more than a few random spares in it.
 
I'm not up to the road of bones yet but I remember that bit.

Just watching Charlie doing Mongolian wrestling in blue shiny pants, lol
 
What happened to the L200 they tipped? Got replaced with a UAZ, I want one looks like a commer with 4wd can be repaired with a FBH and a nail file sorry but them russkies built practical and useful stuff T34 better than a sherman and better than a tiger in numbers but they were in numbers.
 
""""Then their was their attitude towards sponsorship, getting all uppity and almost abusive when a well known Austrian motorcycle manufacturer declined to supply bikes. A comment from one of "them"....
"How dare they!". Yeah, how dare they not give the son of a well-known film producer and the multi-million dollar Hollywood actor shiny new motorbikes. :rolleyes: """""""


Think you may be a bit harsh there, as KTM had basically promised them the bikes then after sending another 'adventurer' to talk to them about the trip they pulled the plug. Ewan was a great lover of KTM and had his heart set on it. I think I may have been a bit p***ed off too, but of course I wouln't have been on camera would I!.
I've read the book and seen the DVD and no matter how much cash you have, some things are still dodgy. To be honest I would rather ride through Russia as an unrecognised nobady, than a mega rich, very kidnappable celebrity.
 
My opinion fwiw - if they had been an ordinary couple of blokes rather than a famous film star and companion I think the chances of them completing the trip would have been a lot less. Witness the "police protection" at several stages on their Russian trip. An ordinary pair of bikers would probably have been held up at gunpoint and all their kit taken.

Setting all that aside, I found I that of the two of them, although Ewan is the big star he was far more down-to-earth than Charley who I thought was a bit of a ****.

I agree with Alane; if the DVD had been edited a bit better all episodes would have fitted on one DVD instead of 2! Also where the L200 was on its side, it certainly looked like it had rolled from the damage to the roof. Going WAY too fast!

I did like the soundtrack though!:D
 
seriesowner said:
Setting all that aside, I found I that of the two of them, although Ewan is the big star he was far more down-to-earth than Charley who I thought was a bit of a ****.

I agree with Alane; if the DVD had been edited a bit better all episodes would have fitted on one DVD instead of 2! Also where the L200 was on its side, it certainly looked like it had rolled from the damage to the roof. Going WAY too fast!

I did like the soundtrack though!:D
Click to expand...

Got to agree with you on the Ewan v Charley thing, and of course Ewan owns a 110, which has got to improve him a bit too!! Haven't seen the Charley doing the Paris Dakar yet, be interesting to see if he is any different in that.
 
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