The adventure series documenting the journey of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from London to New York saw a huge surge of interest in adventure tours and adventurous motorcycling. These boys certainly did BMW a favour as well, choosing to ride BMW R1150GS Adventure bikes (the popularity and sales of which soared), after KTM declined to provide bikes for the trip. This bike model has in fact become something of a bike celebrity as not only was it used by McGregor and Boorman, but also by Simon Newbound, a Guinness World Record holder for motorbike endurance.
Adventure biking has really taken off, with specialised tour companies organising ambitious adventure tours of the Far East and Africa, a whole step up from touring in Europe. All terrain riding is such a different altogether experience to road riding and throws up all sorts of challenges you’d never encounter in a million years on standard British roads. But it’s that whole experience which really makes it: the places you visit, the bike repair incidents, navigating rough terrain and riverbeds and of course all those wide open spaces which you just don’t get in Britain.
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