Fans of adventure motorcycle legends Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman will be happy to hear the duo has been back on the road for a 10-part series titled Long Way Home. The premise is a fun one, they leave Ewan’s home in Scotland headed to Charley’s place in England, only it takes them 10,000 miles to get there. 

This time they aren’t on the adventure bikes that made their rides Long Way Round and Long Way Down so fun to watch, but thankfully they aren’t on the Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric bikes they rode in their last series, Long Way Up. That show did well enough with the general pop, earning three Emmy nominations, but it wasn’t as fun for motorcyclists and fans of the original shows, which were more about riding and less about worrying where and how to charge their motorcycles.

In the upcoming ‘Long Way Home’ series, the duo will be riding vintage European bikes that look to be original or close to it. In the only promo photos that have been released to date, Ewan looks to be on a 1974 Moto Guzzi 850 Interstate Police Special. The bike even has the original police lights, those two-headlamp-sized globes above the headlamp, which were originally colored, but civilian owners had to change them to clear. 

Charley’s bike is obviously a BMW boxer airhead, and the front drum brake is saying early 70s R-bike, likely a R75/5, since we know front discs were available beginning with the /6 series in 1974. The condition of both machines is rough, nothing prissy or low-mileage here, which should make them interesting co-stars in this new series. 

McGregor says the idea for the series was born during their ride from Ushuaia to Los Angeles, as they struggled with their electric Harleys. “On a rather tricky, sandy bit of ‘Long Way Up,’ Charley and I started to daydream about another trip to keep our minds off the scary road at hand,” he says. “This is that trip.”

The daydream that became a reality features a big loop kicking off from McGregor’s place in Scotland, presumably a recently-purchased 18th century retreat in his hometown, Perthshire. The pair will head across the North Sea to Scandinavia, all the way up to the Arctic Circle and then down to the Baltics and through continental Europe. The adventure will take them to more than fifteen countries before crossing the channel back into the UK two months later to arrive in London, where Boorman lives, presumably to some big city fanfare. 

In classic McGregor-Boorman style we’ll meet locals and learn about the cultures and traditions of each area they travel through. There will be a lot of laughs, stunning scenes, famous roads and undoubtedly some interesting roadside mechanics.

“It has been such a pleasure to get back on the road on motorcycles with my best friend Ewan,” said Boorman. “We’ve talked about doing this trip on old bikes since the last one. Traveling around Scandinavia and Europe has been a blast on our beautiful bikes.”

Also along for the ride were the pair’s long-time friends and collaborators, David Alexanian and Russ Malkin, who direct the 10-part series, set to air on Apple TV+ in the same manner as Long Way Up aired September before last. 

And yes, if you’re not subscribed to Apple TV+ you’ll have to pay to watch. Like all streaming services the price is a little higher this year, $12.99 per month, but as a bonus all three of McGregor and Boorman’s shows, Long Way Round, Long Way Down and Long Way Up  are currently streaming on Apple’s service. If you’re just too bummed about paying, wait until the series finishes its weekly airings and binge- watch all 10 episodes on a free 7-day trial. 

For many the “Long Way Down” and “Long Way Round” series, following Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on their round-the-world adventure tours, are the reason they started riding Adventure Motorcycles. And although we’d love to see this dynamic duo back on adventure bikes for more thrills and spills, they’re such legends we’d watch if they were riding scooters. The only thing we don’t know is when this new series will air, but we’ll be sure to drop a post as soon as Apple TV+ drops the date. 

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.