Two bikers set off twenty-one years ago to ride to New York the long way round the world from this street just off Shepherds Bush Green in West London. Actors Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor’s 115 day, 118,478 mile road trip and adventures inspired a generation of bikers and changed the shape of motorcycles on the roads.
Revisiting Bulwer Street today, it’s now one-way, the steel shutter remains but No. 27 is being refitted as an artists’ workshop; there is a parking at the end of the road for delivery scooters but I don’t see any large motorcycles. The front door of Lytton House next door is now painted the same blue that No. 27 was in the bikers’ time. No historical plaque at No. 27. Yet.

Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor rode BMW 1150 GS Adventure bikes and said this bike was built for this sort of journey. Until then, most road bikes had been aspiring sports bikes and off-road bikes were Motocross/Scrambler/Enduro style or built for challenges like the Paris-Dakar rally, all quite different biking propositions.
The Long Way Round TV series broke new ground too, not only using cameras on crash helmets to give the rider point-of-view but the main cameraman rode a third GS and shared the journey. Claudio von Planta’s images resonate with the biker view of the world as well as being cinematic in their own right.
Many moments come to mind from their TV series and book but I enjoyed most their rides under big skies on stony tracks and through rivers when crossing Kazakhstan and Mongolia; their ride of the “Road of Bones” in Siberia took both riders and bikes to the limit and beyond.
Round the world tours on a motorbike are not new, Ewan McGregor credits Ted Simon’s 1973 book Jupiter’s Travels as his inspiration. However a road trip for television would have been impossible without support vehicles and crew. Boorman and McGregror insisted “Journey first” as the principle, meaning the riders make their own journey, camp wild or find their own accommodation, only meeting up with the support crew at border crossings and rest-ups; this preserved the integrity of their concept of two biker mates riding from London to New York, the long way round. The riders were reunited with wives and children in New York.
I saw reporting of their journey in the motorbike press and read some of the book when it emerged; nonetheless I’ve stayed very happy with my sportsbikes that are much lighter but really only shine on smooth tarmac. Meanwhile, adventure style motorbikes have sold in droves and almost all road bikes now have the upright riding position. The Long Way Round changed the motorbiking world.