Wilsons Sandbox

At 8:49 PM +0000 5/31/09, eddiebmauri wrote:

>I hope this post does not start a battle to rival the oil thread >wars, or the chain lube battles that we debate on this newsgroup, >but I have to ask, "am I the only one who thinks that Ewan >McGregor's Long Way Round, and Long Way South adventure travel >series suck?"

Old news, but you're not alone. IMNSHO: My estimate is a 25% "Sucks" to 75% "Awesome" ratio. The "Sucks" group consists mainly of experienced pragmatics, while 100% of the noobs are in the "Awesome" camp, along with many seasoned riders who morphed their KLRs into GoldWings. Mark

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "eddiebmauri" wrote:

> > I hope this post does not start a battle to rival the oil thread wars, or the chain lube battles that we debate on this newsgroup, but I have to ask, "am I the only one who thinks that Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round, and Long Way South adventure travel series suck?" > > I have seen both series and am highly disappointed, here is why. McGregor and his riding buddy, Boorman, play their rides off as some sort of grand adventure. But, they have a support staff that includes 2 SUV's loaded with every imageable tool, parts, a doctor, interpreters, a mechanic, security experts, etc. Give me a break, where is the adventure? > > You want adventure? Read "Lois on the Loose", by Lois Pryce. Ms. Pryce, a Brit., rode a 250cc from Alaska to Ushuaia. Or read Ted Simon's, "Jupiter's Travels", he went round the world solo in the 70's. Andres Carlstein's "Odyssey to Ushuaia" is also a pretty good book. All three of them rode mostly solo, and they were really on their own. > > I can appreciate that a part of McGregor's show is to raise awareness for some cause or another, but as far an "adventure?" Give me a break. Also, McGregor's series is like an endorsement, infomercial, for one motorcycle outfitter or another. > > I'd rather watch Alton Brown's, "Feasting on Asphalt" any day. Better yet, some of the blobs and web sites that some of you have created, and the tales on the HU website, are way more interesting than MacGregor, and a real adventure. > > So, is my thinking way off base here? Am I missing something? > > Eddie (03' KLR650 "la poderosa") >

I am of two minds. It's cool because they do go a lot of hard places, Pick their bikes up out of the mud a lot, eat yak testicles, yada, yada, yada. But it sux because they spent way too much money, took the wrong bikes when they could easily have bought the right ones, and all in all took the sheltered workshop approach. As an adventure, it does not hold a candle to dozens of things you can read about here, .net and ADV. But it's still good TV.

I see your point and share some of your feelings, but at the same time I really enjoyed both movies as well as Race to Dakar with Charley Boorman and most of the regular gang. The good point is that those two have probably done a lot of good for motorcyclists in general. Take a look at how many documentaries and movies have been done about that outlaw biker culture, as opposed to the adventure riders. Thanks to those guys and their sponsors we have all gotten to see parts of the world that we otherwise probably wouldn't have known even existed. An example for me was seeing the genocide museum in Rwanda. I vaugely remember hearing about it when it happened but didn't even know where it was on the map. Seeing all the bones of the victims displayed made it so much more real than hearing that 5000 people were killed. I understand and appreciate geography much more now that I did before, and can relate a little bit to what a sandstorm is like. My mother even enjoyed the movies and she is not the type of person that ordinarily would want to watch a movie about motorcycles. That in itself had to be a good thing as I thing it paints us in a more favorable light. At least my family now understands why I like to go off riding to strange places by myself. The parts of it that bug me is the sad realization that I will likely never be able to go to the places these gents have been. I'll never be able to afford to go to a BMW Rider's school and have someone teach me how to get the most out of riding my bike, but at least I get to tag along and watch thier adventures and capture a little bit of the excitement for myself. I'm hoping they have a few more adventures and tape them as well. Ross Lindberg Fertile, MN

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "eddiebmauri" wrote: > > I hope this post does not start a battle to rival the oil thread wars, or the chain lube battles that we debate on this newsgroup, but I have to ask, "am I the only one who thinks that Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round, and Long Way South adventure travel series suck?" > > I have seen both series and am highly disappointed, here is why. McGregor and his riding buddy, Boorman, play their rides off as some sort of grand adventure. But, they have a support staff that includes 2 SUV's loaded with every imageable tool, parts, a doctor, interpreters, a mechanic, security experts, etc. Give me a break, where is the adventure? > > You want adventure? Read "Lois on the Loose", by Lois Pryce. Ms. Pryce, a Brit., rode a 250cc from Alaska to Ushuaia. Or read Ted Simon's, "Jupiter's Travels", he went round the world solo in the 70's. Andres Carlstein's "Odyssey to Ushuaia" is also a pretty good book. All three of them rode mostly solo, and they were really on their own. > > I can appreciate that a part of McGregor's show is to raise awareness for some cause or another, but as far an "adventure?" Give me a break. Also, McGregor's series is like an endorsement, infomercial, for one motorcycle outfitter or another. > > I'd rather watch Alton Brown's, "Feasting on Asphalt" any day. Better yet, some of the blobs and web sites that some of you have created, and the tales on the HU website, are way more interesting than MacGregor, and a real adventure. > > So, is my thinking way off base here? Am I missing something? > > Eddie (03' KLR650 "la poderosa") >

The movie spurred me to do the TAT..... what's so bad about that? They planted a seed, it took root, and I did my own "adventure tour". The movies were well done entertainment. Cheers to Ewan And Charlie... ________________________________ From: Ross Lindberg To: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 11:05:29 PM Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Re: Ewan McGregor Sux? NKLR I see your point and share some of your feelings, but at the same time I really enjoyed both movies as well as Race to Dakar with Charley Boorman and most of the regular gang. The good point is that those two have probably done a lot of good for motorcyclists in general. Take a look at how many documentaries and movies have been done about that outlaw biker culture, as opposed to the adventure riders. Thanks to those guys and their sponsors we have all gotten to see parts of the world that we otherwise probably wouldn't have known even existed. An example for me was seeing the genocide museum in Rwanda. I vaugely remember hearing about it when it happened but didn't even know where it was on the map. Seeing all the bones of the victims displayed made it so much more real than hearing that 5000 people were killed. I understand and appreciate geography much more now that I did before, and can relate a little bit to what a sandstorm is like. My mother even enjoyed the movies and she is not the type of person that ordinarily would want to watch a movie about motorcycles. That in itself had to be a good thing as I thing it paints us in a more favorable light. At least my family now understands why I like to go off riding to strange places by myself. The parts of it that bug me is the sad realization that I will likely never be able to go to the places these gents have been. I'll never be able to afford to go to a BMW Rider's school and have someone teach me how to get the most out of riding my bike, but at least I get to tag along and watch thier adventures and capture a little bit of the excitement for myself. I'm hoping they have a few more adventures and tape them as well. Ross Lindberg Fertile, MN

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogro ups.com, "eddiebmauri" wrote: > > I hope this post does not start a battle to rival the oil thread wars, or the chain lube battles that we debate on this newsgroup, but I have to ask, "am I the only one who thinks that Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round, and Long Way South adventure travel series suck?" > > I have seen both series and am highly disappointed, here is why. McGregor and his riding buddy, Boorman, play their rides off as some sort of grand adventure. But, they have a support staff that includes 2 SUV's loaded with every imageable tool, parts, a doctor, interpreters, a mechanic, security experts, etc. Give me a break, where is the adventure? > > You want adventure? Read "Lois on the Loose", by Lois Pryce. Ms. Pryce, a Brit., rode a 250cc from Alaska to Ushuaia. Or read Ted Simon's, "Jupiter's Travels", he went round the world solo in the 70's. Andres Carlstein's "Odyssey to Ushuaia" is also a pretty good book. All three of them rode mostly solo, and they were really on their own. > > I can appreciate that a part of McGregor's show is to raise awareness for some cause or another, but as far an "adventure?" Give me a break. Also, McGregor's series is like an endorsement, infomercial, for one motorcycle outfitter or another. > > I'd rather watch Alton Brown's, "Feasting on Asphalt" any day. Better yet, some of the blobs and web sites that some of you have created, and the tales on the HU website, are way more interesting than MacGregor, and a real adventure. > > So, is my thinking way off base here? Am I missing something? > > Eddie (03' KLR650 "la poderosa") > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

i have to say i found it really entertaining not to mention it brings adventure riding to the masses. not to mention awareness..."hey there's a guy with bags all over his bike, i bet he's riding accross the country and he's tired, lets not run him off the road, lets give him some space" lord knows a loaded down klr would be lucky to actually maintain superslab speeds much less be able to stop in a hurry. i gotta be honest, i felt good after watching the movies. and after all thats what entertainment is all about. i don't think it was meant to be a "how to" or even be competitive in the "i'm such a hard, bada$$ dude" arena. it was a fun journey, i had fun with them. being cynical about what someone else has done and how they did it when you haven't done it yourself......well, if it helps you sleep at night. klrdar

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "eddiebmauri" wrote: > > I hope this post does not start a battle to rival the oil thread wars, or the chain lube battles that we debate on this newsgroup, but I have to ask, "am I the only one who thinks that Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round, and Long Way South adventure travel series suck?" > > I have seen both series and am highly disappointed, here is why. McGregor and his riding buddy, Boorman, play their rides off as some sort of grand adventure. But, they have a support staff that includes 2 SUV's loaded with every imageable tool, parts, a doctor, interpreters, a mechanic, security experts, etc. Give me a break, where is the adventure? > > You want adventure? Read "Lois on the Loose", by Lois Pryce. Ms. Pryce, a Brit., rode a 250cc from Alaska to Ushuaia. Or read Ted Simon's, "Jupiter's Travels", he went round the world solo in the 70's. Andres Carlstein's "Odyssey to Ushuaia" is also a pretty good book. All three of them rode mostly solo, and they were really on their own. > > I can appreciate that a part of McGregor's show is to raise awareness for some cause or another, but as far an "adventure?" Give me a break. Also, McGregor's series is like an endorsement, infomercial, for one motorcycle outfitter or another. > > I'd rather watch Alton Brown's, "Feasting on Asphalt" any day. Better yet, some of the blobs and web sites that some of you have created, and the tales on the HU website, are way more interesting than MacGregor, and a real adventure. > > So, is my thinking way off base here? Am I missing something? > > Eddie (03' KLR650 "la poderosa") >

Without the high profile star, the money, and the support crew, it would have looked like a cheesy home movie, not a quality entertainment production. From that standpoint it succeeded in selling adventure riding to a new audience. R

----- Original Message ----- From: eddiebmauri To: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 1:49 PM Subject: [DSN_KLR650] Ewan McGregor Sux? NKLR I hope this post does not start a battle to rival the oil thread wars, or the chain lube battles that we debate on this newsgroup, but I have to ask, "am I the only one who thinks that Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round, and Long Way South adventure travel series suck?" I have seen both series and am highly disappointed, here is why. McGregor and his riding buddy, Boorman, play their rides off as some sort of grand adventure. But, they have a support staff that includes 2 SUV's loaded with every imageable tool, parts, a doctor, interpreters, a mechanic, security experts, etc. Give me a break, where is the adventure? You want adventure? Read "Lois on the Loose", by Lois Pryce. Ms. Pryce, a Brit., rode a 250cc from Alaska to Ushuaia. Or read Ted Simon's, "Jupiter's Travels", he went round the world solo in the 70's. Andres Carlstein's "Odyssey to Ushuaia" is also a pretty good book. All three of them rode mostly solo, and they were really on their own. I can appreciate that a part of McGregor's show is to raise awareness for some cause or another, but as far an "adventure?" Give me a break. Also, McGregor's series is like an endorsement, infomercial, for one motorcycle outfitter or another. I'd rather watch Alton Brown's, "Feasting on Asphalt" any day. Better yet, some of the blobs and web sites that some of you have created, and the tales on the HU website, are way more interesting than MacGregor, and a real adventure. So, is my thinking way off base here? Am I missing something? Eddie (03' KLR650 "la poderosa") [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I've enjoyed their videos, even read one of the books. It is a Grand Adventure in a way -- riding monster bikes, coordinating with the group, picking up the pieces when one member's big mouth causes trouble again ... But there are other ways to travel and video. Check out Terra Circa or Mondo Enduro to see how cheeky Brits do it on the cheap http://www.aerostich.com/aerosearch.php?restrict=Static&q=terra+circa Or Gaurav Jani's work at http://www.dirttrackproductions.com/ Or Carl Parker in China, at http://www.carlparker.com/ I just listened to a podcast with Grant Johnson, cofounder of http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ He has a friend, a teacher in London, who flies to India at the beginning of the summer, rents or buys a bike, rides around India, then sells the bike and files home. And it's CHEAPER than living in London and doing nothing. There's ways to do so much Chris Ross Lindberg wrote:

> ... > > The parts of it that bug me is the sad realization that I will likely never be able to go to the places these gents have been. I'll never be able to afford to go to a BMW Rider's school and have someone teach me how to get the most out of riding my bike, but at least I get to tag along and watch thier adventures and capture a little bit of the excitement for myself. I'm hoping they have a few more adventures and tape them as well. > > Ross Lindberg > Fertile, MN > >

Yeah I think you might be missing something, but it could be just me. I really like Charlie and Ewan and Alton and they do put on a pretty good shows. Not always the perfect shows for me and not always the adventure I would want but it's still fun to watch. You picked some good books, and of course there are great motorcycle blogs and websites, but on the TV there isn't a whole lot of motorcycling in general, and even less dual sport. I don't catch a whole lot of TV, but I would probably pick a show that had a half hour of just a bike idling on a center stand over most everything else on TV. I'm just glad these types of guys include bikes in their adventures, most people don't. Dan A-16

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "eddiebmauri" wrote: > > I hope this post does not start a battle to rival the oil thread wars, or the chain lube battles that we debate on this newsgroup, but I have to ask, "am I the only one who thinks that Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round, and Long Way South adventure travel series suck?" > > I have seen both series and am highly disappointed, here is why. McGregor and his riding buddy, Boorman, play their rides off as some sort of grand adventure. But, they have a support staff that includes 2 SUV's loaded with every imageable tool, parts, a doctor, interpreters, a mechanic, security experts, etc. Give me a break, where is the adventure? > > You want adventure? Read "Lois on the Loose", by Lois Pryce. Ms. Pryce, a Brit., rode a 250cc from Alaska to Ushuaia. Or read Ted Simon's, "Jupiter's Travels", he went round the world solo in the 70's. Andres Carlstein's "Odyssey to Ushuaia" is also a pretty good book. All three of them rode mostly solo, and they were really on their own. > > I can appreciate that a part of McGregor's show is to raise awareness for some cause or another, but as far an "adventure?" Give me a break. Also, McGregor's series is like an endorsement, infomercial, for one motorcycle outfitter or another. > > I'd rather watch Alton Brown's, "Feasting on Asphalt" any day. Better yet, some of the blobs and web sites that some of you have created, and the tales on the HU website, are way more interesting than MacGregor, and a real adventure. > > So, is my thinking way off base here? Am I missing something? > > Eddie (03' KLR650 "la poderosa") >

Have not seen the shows and just got Long Way Down out of the library Saturday but have not begun reading it yet. The way I see it this is vicarious travel, just as on Globe Trekker on PBS. They are doing it, not me. They are not doing it the way I would (probably because of the way I could afford to--or not). That's okay. If it becomes too preposterous or exasperating I can just stop reading. If it's a real trip that you're in the midst of, that is not quite the same solution and if your own trip is really bad you can't throw it across the room as you can a book. Stephen

--- On Mon, 6/1/09, Chris Norloff wrote: From: Chris Norloff Subject: Re: [DSN_KLR650] Re: Ewan McGregor Sux? NKLR To: Cc: DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, June 1, 2009, 11:41 AM I've enjoyed their videos, even read one of the books. It is a Grand Adventure in a way -- riding monster bikes, coordinating with the group, picking up the pieces when one member's big mouth causes trouble again ... But there are other ways to travel and video. Check out Terra Circa or Mondo Enduro to see how cheeky Brits do it on the cheap http://www.aerostich.com/aerosearch.php?restrict=Static&q=terra+circa Or Gaurav Jani's work at http://www.dirttrackproductions.com/ Or Carl Parker in China, at http://www.carlparker.com/ I just listened to a podcast with Grant Johnson, cofounder of http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/%c2%a0 He has a friend, a teacher in London, who flies to India at the beginning of the summer, rents or buys a bike, rides around India, then sells the bike and files home. And it's CHEAPER than living in London and doing nothing. There's ways to do so much Chris Ross Lindberg wrote: > ... > > The parts of it that bug me is the sad realization that I will likely never be able to go to the places these gents have been. I'll never be able to afford to go to a BMW Rider's school and have someone teach me how to get the most out of riding my bike, but at least I get to tag along and watch thier adventures and capture a little bit of the excitement for myself. I'm hoping they have a few more adventures and tape them as well. > > Ross Lindberg > Fertile, MN > > ------------------------------------ List sponsored by Dual Sport News at: www.dualsportnews.com List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html Member Map at: http://www.frappr.com/dsnklr650Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]