Ewan McGregor on why, for Apple TV+’s Long Way Home, riding vintage motorbikes made sense
GPS, drones, Insta360s, GoPros and … vintage motorbikes? McGregor and Charley Boorman’s road trip around Europe mixes technology old and new
The last time Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman went on a motorcycle adventure, they rode cutting-edge, electric Harley-Davidsons. For their latest trip, they took a trip back in time.
The British best friends and actors chose to use vintage bikes this time as they rode through 17 European countries for Apple TV+’s Long Way Home, the fourth instalment of their popular road trip docuseries. It starts airing on May 9.
McGregor picked a 1974 Moto Guzzi Eldorado, which was used as a patrol bike by the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol. Boorman picked a rusted-out BMW R75/5 and scrambled to make it roadworthy.
“I guess there’s just sort of nowhere else to go other than backwards,” McGregor says. “We felt that we hadn’t done a trip on old bikes. I’ve always loved old bikes.”
The duo start at McGregor’s home in Scotland – they leave serenaded by a bagpipe band and, naturally, rain – and head into Holland, up through the Nordics, Arctic Circle, down to the Baltics before going through the Alps and France.