Ewan McGregor and his pal Charley Boorman are going to be back on the road soon, according to reports that four adventure-ready electric Harley-Davidson LiveWire bikes have been delivered on their behalf to Tierra Del Fuego, the southernmost tip of Argentina. This will be their third road trip, and their planned journey makes for one amazing story.
Ewan McGregor has been cool for what seems like forever, from his skinny, electrifying debut in Trainspotting to his run in the Star Wars sequels as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi to reprising his iconic role in T2 and on to the forthcoming Shining sequel Doctor Sleep and a much-anticipated comeback as Kenobi in a forthcoming Star Wars project.
But even hardcore fans of the guy might have missed his possibly greatest accomplishments: crossing the globe with his good buddy Charley Boorman, an accomplished travel writer, TV presenter, and more importantly, motorcyclist.
McGregor and Boorman first made waves with the documentary The Long Way Round in 2004, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s fascinating. You can surely imagine riding from London to New York City on BMW motorcycles, but you can’t imagine accidents, breakdowns, and McGregor accidentally taking some gasoline to the face. Not to mention him finding DVDs of his own movies in some remote gas station.
That didn’t stop them from reprising the adventure in 2007’s The Long Way Down, which found them traversing the world from the tip of Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa, and this is after Boorman got himself all messed up doing the Race to Dakar and, despite his protests to the contrary, nearly dying.
Anyway, there are some seriously hardcore Harleys in Argentina with the boys’ names on them, equipped with hand guards and soft luggage. Motorcycle manufacturers have been known to haggle with these guys, so it’s interesting to see that Harley is so up front about their participation, especially considering that these bad boys are completely electric.
Yes, this is the point where you wonder how anyone, even Obi-Wan Kenobi, can get from Tierra Del Fuego to Los Angeles on a bike you have to plug in from time to time. First of all, they have an entire crew to help, as they always have, even if they’re usually off-camera. They also have a few superchargers, and regardless, the bikes have a remarkable range of 95 or so miles generally and 146 miles in the city, but no word on what kind of range they have off-road, which Ewan and Charlie have always favored on their travels. These Harley LiveWire bikes will naturally have to work harder in the conditions that McGregor and Boorman tend to tackle, and to help, their supporting Rivians – those are all-electric pickup trucks — have a range of some 400 miles.
It’s been 15 years since the boys went the Long Way Round and over a decade since they motored The Long Way Down so you know, it’s really great to see that a couple of pals are going out again. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
