Lifelong biking buddies Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman really started something with the release nearly 20 years ago of Long Way Round, the documentary about their 19,000-mile ride eastwards from London to New York on mighty BMW R1150GS motorcycles. The film and its 2007 sequel, Long Way Down, sparked a fire in people who had long harboured thoughts of getting out there and discovering the world by following its roads less travelled from the vantage point of a bike designed specifically for the job.
Sales of so-called ‘adventure sport’ machines soared, with BMW’s GS models topping the charts for years to come and prompting rival manufacturers to follow suit with other large-capacity on/off-road
