Details of how the world will soon be watching Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s latest adventure, Long Way Up, have become clearer with the announcement Apple TV+ has commissioned streaming rights to the new motorcycle series.

You’ll remember when we reported last fall that the famous duo, along with a crew and sizable convoy of support vehicles, was heading north from Ushuaia, Argentina, aboard a pair of Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric bikes, street-oriented machines that were far from proven at the time.

Three months later the guys completed their 7000-plus mile journey through the Americas, arriving at a low-key wrap party in Los Angeles, all toothy grins and tattered bikes. 

It turned out the decision to go electric had nothing to do with sponsorship, instead being the manifestation of McGregor’s long-time passion for and curiosity about e-vehicles and the future they represent. Talking to Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show post adventure he said he and Boorman simply wanted to be a part of the new “wave” of transportation technology. 

“It proved to be amazing, and quite tricky at the same time,” he said on the show. And while they could sometimes charge the bikes at hotels, and restaurants during lunch stops, many times they had to rely on the generosity of locals, knocking on doors and asking to use an outlet.

While the Harleys were outfitted with wire-spoke wheels, engine guards and skid plates we’ll have to wait for the show to air to find out if the duo  were involved in any of the off-road capers that helped them become adventure bike royalty.

Social media sightings during the trip – shots of the hairy, happy duo posing with excited locals in South and Central America, make it clear the show will be filled with those hilarious social interactions we’ve come to expect. Not to mention a real-world reveal of what it’s like to explore the roads and small towns along ADV riding’s most bucket-listed journey. 

So now that we know where to watch, hopefully it won’t take long for Apple TV+ to release the show. The first series, Long Way Around, required three months of post production, while the second adventure, Long Way Down, saw only two months between end-of-trip and airing. We’re now at seven months and counting since Ewan and Charley returned to the States, and no doubt there’s Covid to blame for the long wait. 

How To Watch

We’ll pass the air date on the minute we hear. In the meantime, if you don’t have or want an Apple TV+ subscription you might want to hold off and take advantage of the 7-day free trial once the series drops, hopefully in its entirety. But even if Apple airs one installment per week, it’s still an affordable watch with the current streaming fee at $4.99 per month. The streaming service is offered through the Apple TV app accessible on Apple devices, Roku, Fire TV and Smart TVs or you can go to tv.apple.com to watch on your computer.

And don’t even bother complaining about the bikes being electric Harleys. Now that America has entered lockdown overtime, watching Ewan and Charley riding the subway would be a welcome distraction!

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.