Folks, it's just my opinion........

I personally couldn't care less if C+E never get on a bike again.

"We're hardcore," they say over and over again. And then they proceed to get everything handed to them for free, they get specialist SAS training to deal with bandits, they get "fixers" at every bend in the road, they ride through a river then describe it as "the biggest challenge of our lives", they have a tough 200 mile day then get a 5* hotel in which to recover, they camp out for a few nights then think they have almost become nomads of the land, they throw thespian tantrums with a few swear words to boot and they reckon they are "pioneers" for motorcycle travellers.

NO THEY AREN'T. They're 2 spoilt boys who happen to like bikes. Don't get me wrong, I am quite sure we would all jump at such a trip if given the chance and I have no gripe with them for taking advantage of the opportunities that have presented themselves. In fact, I would even go as far as to say....well done chaps, you manipulated your positions well.

But "hardcore" ?????
Not on your nelly, C+E, if you want "hardcore" just take a look at the guys who did Mondo Enduro and Terra Circa.........and lots of other people who submit their travel tales on sites such as this one (which doesn't include me by the way coz my bike travels have never gone outside Europe. But then I'm not claiming any titles either!). I'd like their shows much better and I'd respect them much more if they simply got on with the trips and stopped making reference to how they are experts, tough guys, macho men and whatever other ludicrous claims they make. Coz they really aren't any of these in comparison to other everyday bike travellers.

Like I said earlier......it's just my opinion, but I believe it's an opinion based on fact (and not jealousy!).



Chris

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"Life is too short to drink cheap wine!"

Agreed, Mondo Enduro was much much more hardcore , than this , Mondo were incredibly fortunate in all the goodwill they blended from everywhere , I wonder if such goodwill has been worn out though with all the riders passing through over the years.....

Ie Russians on the road (there being only one) thinking oh not another bunch of riders again.... etc

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I don't agree with the point about TV needing proper organisation etc.
The lads from Mondo Enduro/Terra Circa did it all themselves....no fixers, no nothing. They filmed their own sequences and presented it in a way that made it clear that the trip was of primary importance and the filming/marketing was secondary. And in my opinion it made for a more interesting programme. It lets you see how it REALLY is when you undertake a difficult challenge. No airs or graces, they just got on with it.

C+E had every opportunity to do this trip on their own. They weren't exactly stuck for a few quid, were they???? But they sold out to commercialism then had the cheek to gripe about the restrictions it placed upon them. If they were so disappointed about not getting KTM bikes for free to begin with then why didn't they go out and buy 2 of them?? Instead they reacted as if the world had collapsed around them with little chance of recovery.
To me it all comes down to a pompous attitude that says,
"We're famous. We want everything handed to us!"

Chris

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"Life is too short to drink cheap wine!"

It's no use, I'm going to get sucked in, I can feel it happening. I recently lent both LWR/D and Mondo Enduro to my dad to watch. He's not a biker, although he used to be in the 50's, he's not a traveller although he used to be in the 60's. He prefered E&C's efforts, so I asked him why.

His answer was that he felt the show was better produced, the camera work better directed and the quality higher. As he said Mondo Enduro is more like William Woollard's Top Gear, where content is what's important. LWR/D is like Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear, well filmed, well produced TV, where style is as or more important than content. And that's the market E&C were aiming at, the mass TV watching market, not the people who do it and then get on this forum and others like it. We're more likely to be drawn into Mondo Enduro.

Think of LWR/D as a taster, something to whet your appetite, a long weekend in the Lakes. Then once you've got the bug, found this forum you move on to Mondo Enduro, and plan your year-long tour of the planet.

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Spot on, totally agree.

The question then is where they go next. The Jeremy Clarkson approach is to do the same wheel spins with a different Ferrari and blow up a bus instead of the caravan. The public will be entertained and will be happy that the programme is what they expected.

The alternative is to do a ME style trip and hope their filming and a good editor can produce what the TV company wants.

A TV producer would pick a repeat peformance, so you would have to fund it yourself if you went the ME route. ME made it to TV, but on one of the documentary channels. Even the likes of National Geographic havn't done anything with Lois Pryce, our mate Grant etc. The only alternative to E+C has been Nick Sanders, another one who I'd call a showman on a bike.

I guess that's where we find out if E+C are bikers on TV or TV stars on bikes.

Andy

Flew back from KL to Melbourne last night on Malaysian Airlines. The May inflight magazine has an interview with EM where he mentions that yes, South and North America are the logical continents for his next ride.

Garry from Oz.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

i do laugh at Charlie and Ewans adventures sometimes but they have helped to inspire me and let my wife understand bike touring better. Since Long Way Round i have toured Bulgaria twice and Sri Lanka. Next month a 2 month trip round the Black Sea so thanks Charlie and Ewan and of course the Mondo Enduro / Terra Circa boys. Andy

I think its ba good point abot sponsership and equipment. These are options un-available to the average rider. I can't afford (or at BMW's expense) to get a new (top of the range/popular) 1200 everytime I want to start a new journey. That and all the Garmin/Nokia/Touratech stuff thrown in free.

But im not a movie star. When reading a article by Claudio in Bike he mentioned that he wanted to shoot the picture in a way that showed what heppens between two friends on a long journey. I too would like to see the bits missed out, the show seems to 'cover up' the fact that the two guys had beef with each other. Although LWD makes up for that. The guys tried to have a similar experience that people on here want to have/have had, but becasue of personality profile this couldnt work.

The show is a bit of an advert for BMW/Touratech/Nokia/Belstaff, and boy, did it work!!

As to the E+C saying there "so hardcore", Im sure some of the time it was used sarcastically.

Warthog, it's in Travellers Seeking Travellers cos of the OP, who wondered if perhaps they were on the road at the same time as E&C, and we thus, seeking them.

And, one things just occured to me, something to ask ourselves as we have a snipe at the celebs. If there's no more E&C on TV, will you miss them? Cos one things for sure, no matter whether they got stuff free or not, they got biking on TV.

Maybe there's an opening for someone to jump in though, Poor Way Up, perhaps?

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Ahh, so it was a case of mildly wandering off topic....

As for missing them if they did not reappear on TV? Depnds on whether the next installment has the feel of LWR which I liked, or LWD which felt more contrived...

Perhaps my point of view was unclear: I have nothing against what they did or how they did it, except to say that its not how I would choose to do it, but I still enjoy watching it all....

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Sorry Chris - I must have missed that in the TV series and books - can you point me to where they say that?

m

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Yes Matt

E Mc G made reference to it on two occasions during LWD and I heard him make reference to it on BBC 5 Live during an interview.

Chris

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"Life is too short to drink cheap wine!"

He does refer to the conditions as being pretty hardcore first in Kazakstan and then again in Mongolia... I don't think he says "hey, we're hardcore" just that it is.

And hardcore is all relative, he'd hardly biked on the dirt before. I know the first time I biked on a bit of mud I thought I was hardcore too.

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It's getting like the Three Yorkshiremen on Monty Python in here:

"When I rode t' North Cape, Ah did it 'wi nowt but an F650 an a black and white GPS"

"F650! Ah'd a thought a were in 'even on an F650. Ah did it on a C50 wi no tread ont back tyre an only a 2-pound book token for petrol"

"C50! Ah pushed an Harley wi mi ole fam'ly ont back and square wheels......"



We've done this one before. You can't make a TV programme to a schedule with a risk that two front men and six crew will get stuck half way up the Amazon for a month until UPS and some customs clowns decide to deliver a spare widget. Hence you have fixers and spare bikes. I agree this makes it unrealistic and I agree Mondo Enduro was way better. It's like comparing a news reel with Saving Private Ryan though. The general public like stable shots and logical editing (ME is the best of it's kind but it's pure skill that it's watchable, it could have been real home movie stuff). Most BBC/Sky viewers don't notice that the bottom half of a Nazi tank is Russian or that one of the bikes changes for no apparent reason, but they will turn off when it ceases to make sense as to why finding a shiney thing it some drunken Russians hut is so good.

I felt cheated too, but having read more I think EM and CB got cheated out of their trip too.

As various people said at the start of this thread, lets hope they ditch the film crew and try it for real.

Andy

You're right Andy, I didn't and I've got the DVD's, when's it do it, I'll go and look..... but you have to tell or I'll only have to watch all ten hours again.

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