Has Ewan McGregor saved the UK motorcycle industry? Read more: http://www.visordown.
 

Eight years after Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman's Long Way Round trip, it appears as though the duo's influence is stronger than ever. BMW have made huge profits on the back of the Long Way series while KTM must still be kickng themselves for turning down the duo's request for the loan of a 950 Adventure all those years ago.

In 2012, motorcycle sales in the Adventure category in the UK were up 15.2% in a market that was down 0.2% overall. In 2012 the Touring segment was down 22.9% while Customs and Sport Touring were down 13% each. Just a handful of categories were up and of those most showed single digit rises but the Adventure sector is - at 15.2% up - booming.


Read more: Discuss: Has Ewan McGregor saved the UK motorcycle industry? - Features - Visordown

For a Hollywood-type actor, he seems like a reasonably nice enough guy - but just because one guy advocates a style of riding, that doesn't save an entire industry. I mean, really, how much of motorcycle riding is "adventure touring"? 95% of motorcycle riding is just some ordinary schmoe commuting to work or maybe going out on the country roads for a couple hours in a sunny weekend.

40 years ago the adventure bike category, even BMW's GS bikes, hadn't been invented but people still went on adventures. The poor dispatch riders during WWII weren't riding adventure bikes but they went on worse trails than most GSers would tackle. Have a look at old Harley adverts from the 1920s and 30s, the roads they rode were dirt trails. Today's adventure category is a fashion grouping.

And a 100 years ago, they'd use camels.

So, should we all stay at home and cry for bygone days or get up and get what is left to us out there? :cool4:

Well, I reckon they drew attention to what was at the time a very small niche within motorcycling. Whether they saved the industry is a different matter. The article says sales of tourers are down, so is it that people who in the past would have progressed from sports bikes to touring bikes now buy adventure bikes instead?

I see it a bit like the current boom in 4x4s. In the past people bought estate cars if they wanted something to pack the family in, now they buy soft-roaders.

What E&C did is got their show on major networks around the world and a certain manufacturer under people's noses. It meant the mass media could talk about bikes in a positive non-threatening way (would the Radio Times, a TV listings guide ever have had a multi-page spread on bikes if it weren't for LWD?). Inevitably that drew some people into biking, me for one, and almost certainly it drew some people to adventure styled bikes and then some people ended up here and learnt you can have just as much of an adventure on a C90.

Something I've always wondered, when LWR and LWD hit the screens, did this site and others like it see a rise in hits and registrations?

I recently heard claims, that BMW R1200GS is the best-selling large-capacity motorcycle in the world(!), and that one out of three of all Beemer bikes produced today are 1200GS´s. Hard to tell, how big an influence Ewan & Charlie really had, but yeah, I believe KTM must be kicking themselves!!

I´ve always loved these ´ADV´ kind of bikes, so even if the average user never takes one off-road, I´m really happy to see that the category is doing so well, and that new models keep coming from basically all manufacturers. Ewan & Charlie definitely gave this development a boost, I believe.

Well, in Germany almost every 2nd bike you pass on the road is a 1200GS.
But, E&C were not seen on German-TV a lot.
Maybe it helped selling overseas, but they can't claim the saving of an industrie to them self, although they maybe would like that.
Once again it shows how overrated they are, in history books they might be mentioned in the future.
And not to mention, who wants an SUV, buys one.

Like for all SUVs, better don't go off-road.

Would the Germans have won the war, had they had the 1200GS ?

:D I love bashing the SUVs, not only BMW, Yamaha, Triumph and Co. just try to copy the hipe. :D

Clearly E and Thingy didn't harm BMW GS sales. As far as saving the m/c industry? IMHO no. The Jap m/c industry is far from saved. They are struggling a lot: too expensive (Yen x rates etc) and not selling what the customer wants (i.e. a BMW GS).

Or possibly:

Insurance and the fact that you can't use 200 mph performance anywhere killed the sports bike.

The fact that you aren't a rebel for wearing a leather jacket with your name spelled out in studs on the back when your bank manager, accountant and dentist wear the same every fourth Sunday in July kills the Cruiser thing.

Lots of old boys who passed their test by driving round the block without falling off or running the examiner over who thought they would be the next Kenny Roberts or Dennis Hopper are now riding electric scooters in shopping precincts.

Those who are left are skint after the 17 part test, can't insure a 200 mph bike (or three bikes so they can have specialised ones) and really need something that will do a bit of anything at better than 40 mpg.

I'll credit E&C with convincing some parts of the UK press that race replicas were not the be all and end all.

Andy

I'm one of them. I'm 67 year's old. And been to just about every country in Europe. Are these the electric scooter's you are talking about?

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/CBR1000f.jpg

And this...

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...ikegsx1400.jpg

John933

They probably influenced the bike market , as mentioned in a previous post , its brought to Mr averages attention , same as in the 4x4 area , people are looking for escape , the majority dont actually do anything but its the idea thats seductive , and if the vehicle isnt so intimidating that helps , plus with the cameras etc you cant go for the performance "escape" so they look for another . JMHO

I'm 59, have Cbr 600, Vtr Firestorm, cbr 400 track bike.
Ride nearly every day since I was 17.
No walking frame needed.:rofl:

I agree with some of the above. I do think they raised the profile of adventure motorcycling and the GS in particular (even though the bikes didn't actually do terribly well!)

The fact people used to manage without trail bikes is totally irrelevant. I have a book by a guy who travelled accross russia in an Austin 7 in the 1930s but I wouldn't expect people to do that now! (Or a series one landy called Polyana for that matter!)

The fact most people will never use their bikes off road is irrelevant, the same way as it is irrelevant for most 4x4 drivers, it's an image thing, trying to portray your self as being a bit rugged and outdoorsy, or maybe just dreaming a dream that one day it might happen.

In the words of Clarkson, 'this watch is waterproof to 3000ft, I will never take it underwater to 3000ft, but it's nice to know that if I drop it in the sink doing the washing up it will survive!)

The vast amount of traffic now on the road of bones is testament to the influence of the series!!

Germans will ride a lot of BMWs anyway so lack of exposure there isn't that relevant, but I think the series had a massive effect on sales elsewhere, even though most owners wouldn't admit it. I suspect Mitsubishi didn't do too bad out of it either!

I do also think though that, as someone mentioned above, a GS makes a lot of sense as an everyday road bike, maybe it's the new maggott!

I don't know if the KTM rep has been let down from hanging upside down in his chains yet!

The KTM rep will be doing fine so long as he's the one who started the claims/rumours/comments that posers who've never been further than Starbucks without a support team use BMW's while "real" extreme adventure off-road extreme adventurists go Orange! Promoting Pepsi over Coke, Maccy D over KFC, Chelsea over Man U etc. is never such a hard job so long as the market wants sickly sweet drinks, junk food and football. Beer drinking, steak eating Rugby fans are not in that market.

Andy

I resemble that remark.
Well nearly so. :innocent: