Ex-Top Gear Host Does Lockdown ‘Long Way Round’ Tribute (In Yard)
Richard Hammond makes travel documentary in his own yard and it’s brilliant!
“Well, I am today going to make my own exciting and sometimes moving tribute to that great TV show with my own working from home Long Way Round,” he says in the video.
Being a motorcycling fanatic himself, Richard was inspired to do his own Long Way Round journey but limited by ‘Stay at Home’ ordinances, he would be constrained to his own yard. Although that worked out to be more entertaining than you would expect, because housed on the premises is a collection of old rare cars and motorcycles that would make any museum proud.

Richard’s ride of choice for his Long Way Round (the yard) tribute would fittingly be a 1929 BMW R52 – a top touring bike of its day, which is also powered by an air-cooled flat twin engine just like the R1150GS Adventures Ewan and Charlie rode. The 90-year-old machine’s 486cc, 12-horsepower engine is capable of 62 mph but he wouldn’t reach anything close to those speeds during this lap around the yard.
Beyond a BMW Motorrad history lesson, some highlights of Richard’s ‘daring’ journey include a stop to check out a 1969 Porsche 911T, a 1920’s Sunbeam motorcycle that features a candle for a headlight, and even a motorcycle crash. Throughout this slow-motion adventure, Richard entertains with his familiar humorous commentary which even draws chuckles from his young daughter who tries to maintain composure while working the camera for dad. And that may be the subtle message that hits home the most in this video. While Richard is entertaining the stuck-at-home masses with his hilarious antics, maybe more importantly he’s building a connection with his daughter by incorporating her into his little creative home project.

Richard Hammond’s brilliant video is well worth seven minutes of your time if you are looking for a quick distraction to keep you occupied. But it’s also a reminder that while we may be stuck indoors, without our normal range of entertainment options, these times force us to get more creative and explore new ways to stimulate our senses. And while we may not have a menagerie of old cars and motorcycles sitting in our garage to play with, maybe we’ll discover a new interest we didn’t know we had and hopefully we’ll develop even stronger bonds with our family members by recruiting them to join us in our next creative endeavor.
So thanks Richard for giving us a little lockdown inspiration, along with a reminder for us to all stay home, stay safe and get creative. If this video gets you a little nostalgic for the old Top Gear like it did us, you can still catch Richard, Jeremy and James on their new show called The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video.
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Omg !!!!
That’s funny. Good show Richard.
Richard
That was to funny!
Thanks for the time away from this crazy world.
If you ever get to Winnipeg.
Look us up!
You won’t regret it!