Got sun on my face
Sleeping rough on the road
I'll tell you all about it
When I get home
Gonna roll up the sidewalk
Gonna need letting up
Comin' round to meet you
The long way up
In 2004 and 2007,
I did two motorcycle trips with my best friend, Charley Boorman.
We called them Long Way Round and Long Way Down.
We rode across Europe, Russia, Mongolia, and North America in Long Way Round.
It's either get across it, or this trip ends.
We don't have to solve problems like this in everyday life.
And then down through Europe and Africa in Long Way Down.
We did it!
I always felt in my heart of hearts that there would be three Long Ways.
But life got in the way.
I went back to work and moved to the States,
and Charley and I just sort of lost touch.
And then something happened that reminded me what was really important.
I got a text saying that he'd had a horrendous motorcycle accident.
Broken his legs and his pelvis and broken his left wrist,
and I think because of this, we just sort of found each other again.
And now we've decided to do another epic trip,
riding 13,000 miles
from Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego in the southern tip of Argentina,
crossing South America, Central America, Mexico,
all the way to Los Angeles in California.
And we've got just three months to do it.
It's a lot to do.
We had to get the old team back together again.
We've got Russ and Dave producing and directing.
I'm good to go when he is.
We've all been waiting for it for about 12 years.
So it's great the team are back together.
Ewan and Charley will have cameras and microphones on their helmets,
so they can actually film themselves when they're not with the team.
We'll link up with the boys at borders,
but otherwise, they'll be on their own.
We'll ride through the brutal Patagonian winter,
the extremes of the Atacama Desert,
the vast salt flats of Bolivia...
before witnessing firsthand the endangered jungles of Central America,
and Mexican communities torn apart by cartels.
And if that wasn't enough of a challenge,
we wanted to see if we could do it on electric motorcycles.
-This will be a problem for that. -Yeah.
If we can't charge the bikes, what are we gonna do?
I'm really a bit worried about whether or not this is possible.
We're calling this one Long Way Up.
I was dreaming of doing a trip for years,
just leaving LA and riding to the very tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego.
I bought all my kit, and I built a bike for it.
I'm gonna try and see if we could start it using some starting fluid.
It just became really apparent that this journey should be shared with--
you know, with him.
-I'll spray, and then you start. -Okay.
There's something very attractive about being on the road.
You yearn for adventure and not knowing what comes ahead.
There's a bit of fire.
Maybe we should've taken that off.
At least we got it started.
There's this whole big area over here, the Americas, that we haven't explored,
and that's hugely thrilling.
I'm dying to get out there. I want to be on a trip again.
See, it must be-- I haven't turned the fuel on.
-Do you think that would help? -That would help, yeah.
Oh, my God!
The main thrust of the prep for me is, what are we gonna ride?
The idea of doing the trip on an electric bike
wasn't something that I'd immediately considered,
but I realized that it was something that's part of my life.
So, that's it. Twelve panels.
So then it gets fed over here into this.
This is the solar hub.
I run air-conditioning for the trailer, TVs, washing machine.
And I've got 12 solar panels
and never ever used more power than I'm making, not ever.
And there's nothing quite like throwing a switch
and knowing that the light bulb came on because you collected the sun.
I'm having my old beloved 1954 Volkswagen Beetle converted to electric.
It's definitely the future.
We'll all be driving in electric-powered vehicles, I'm sure.
Do a little... solar experiment.
He's charging a phone.
The whole idea of going electric is really interesting.
Ewan and Charley do solar.
Cars, it seems like they're getting a real handle on it,
but in the motorcycle world, they're not as far ahead as I thought they would be.
And so, that makes it even more challenging.
Boom, USB.
So, we just need a bit of-- I just wonder what size of this we would need
-to charge, say, a motorcycle. -A motorbike.
I'd say a bit bigger.
Charging.
That's it.
Back together. Lots of things have happened in 12 years. We've all got older.
David and Russ are back on board to film the trip.
But first of all,
we need to figure out the practicalities of going on electric motorcycles.
So, devil's advocate,
another part of Long Way Round and Long Way Down that was very special
was riding and being between cities, being between settlements,
and going, "Let's stay here tonight."
And we would put our tents up,
and then we'd wake up in the morning and we'd take off again.
If you've got to charge a bike overnight,
then we wouldn't be able to do that.
I think some of the best parts are when you're doing just what you're saying,
and going out and into it.
-So, I wouldn't want... -Us to be tied.
-...to sacrifice that. -It's worth experimenting.
You can say it to the kids as well. They're like, "Oh, that's the way forward.
-That's the way the planet should be." -Yeah, yeah.
No, no, I don't want to be the negative electric guy. I'm not.
I just want us to think about all of the things that could and might go wrong.
I just don't want it to fall into this whole thing of being this...
-Stressed. -...this whole electric kind of mission.
We've spoken to Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki-- It's like we are well ahead of the curve.
'Cause they're just not ready for it. The fact is there's not many--
Tell us good news.
It's very good news, 'cause there's not many frontier moments in motorcycling
when you haven't ever done anything before.
So you'd be the first people to go this sort of distance charging as you go.
Central America.
It's quite exciting looking at maps again, isn't it?
-Yeah. -I'm quite excited.
Charley and I are gonna focus on the bikes.
Finding the right bike, building the bike.
So Russ and Dave will help with the logistics of the trip.
But first we need to plan our route.
I'll tell you what we miss is Machu Picchu and a lot of Chile.
And what's this here? Where would you turn right?
These are the ice fields of Chile.
-Ice fields? -Well, the glaciers.
-We're on motorcycles, man. Are you nuts? -Are you mad?
-Crossing the ice fields on two wheels. -This is the Atacama, which is stunning.
-Mazatlán? -Into--
We've got to learn Spanish.
Yeah, we've got plenty of time, haven't we?
-I don't know. -Eight months.
-No, to plan, I mean. -I thought you meant to do it.
We've got eight months for the journey, haven't we?
-No? What? -It's not a huge amount to do.
Eight months? We're going on an electric bike, you idiot! Eight months!
We'll have to find a game that we really like.
Just something to do while we're charging.
-I don't know what it is. -Cards.
-Uno-- -Strip poker.
Strip poker. Maybe strip poker.
Charley and I have arranged to ride some road going bikes,
electric bikes, to see how they handle.
Oh, my God, it's really sexy. Look at it.
So, you just turn it on and that's it.
All right. Sounds amazing.
Or it doesn't sound amazing. There's no loud noise.
We started thinking about being on the road again.
It's a lovely feeling saying, "Let's go here" and then off you go.
You know, with a friend.
It's been a long time since we did this.
I mean, what a great thing to do. To travel and see the world.
And also, I've reconnected with Charley.
I'm most happy when I'm on the back of a motorcycle.
You know, when you look over your shoulder and there's your best friend,
that's something that I've really missed over the years.
Charley? What mode are you in? Eco?
Sexy mode.
They're great fun.
It's much better than I thought it would be, the ride.
-It feels great. -And we can talk to each other.
-Yeah, it's pretty cool. -And you can hear the birds tweeting.
And...
It's so good. You know what's interesting is you can really feel the road,
'cause you've got-- there's nothing vibrating, and there's no engine.
So, you really feel-- you just really feel the road under your wheels.
And it's fast, and it's really fun. It's nice.
See ya.
Because of Long Way Round and Long Way Down,
I experience a sort of zen-like experience when I ride a bike anyway,
'cause I spent so many hours riding them,
and it puts me in a sort of trance in a way, and I love it.
It's my meditation, I suppose.
And the experience of being on an electric bike
just made me feel even more like that.
So, I think this is the way forward.
It was great to be riding along with you again.
-I know. This is awesome, isn't it? -I love it.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
We're just about to arrive at EV West.
My friend Michael who runs EV West--
I'm gonna pick his brains about electric-powered things.
Motorcycles really.
He'll put electric power in anything.
He converts Porsches and Ferraris and loads of VW stuff.
-How's it going? -Good to see you. You all right?
I recognize that.
Michael's converting my 1954 oval VW Beetle to electric.
Yeah, this looks brilliant. This looks so trick, doesn't it?
They gave me a little Obi-Wan key ring.
So, you guys are getting ready for a wild one.
-Yeah, yeah, I know. -We wanna pick your brains about it.
'Cause we're gonna be coming across South America, Central America.
What do we do?
You know, the first weekend we got our electric dirt bikes,
we went to the desert and rode until the battery was--
Like, we literally limped the bikes back to the truck.
And I was like, "I thought we'd have some more juice."
Oh, yeah, it's cool. So cool.
Beautifully made, isn't it?
These are just an absolute engineering feat.
I mean, that's why this is gonna be so tough for you guys,
because the best bikes out there, you have a 72-mile range.
We're gonna get 70 miles at best, you think, on anything?
Yeah.
I think it doesn't sound too good.
-It doesn't sound good, does it? -No.
And he's saying 70 miles.
-On anything. -On anything. Yeah.
I think at that range, if we're having to achieve 160 to 180 miles a day,
you're looking at charging twice during the day.
-Not just a lunchtime charge, but that's-- -And that sucks up hours.
And if you've only got house electrics, you've not got fast-charge electrics,
there's not enough hours in the day.
Let's go and get into it a bit more. Here's the boys.
-Hey, guys. -All right, lads?
-How's it going? Looks amazing. -How are you, Russ?
We all would love to do this trip from the tip of South America
to Los Angeles on electric bikes. We all agreed that we'd like to try.
But essentially, whatever we do,
we're not gonna get away from this 70 miles.
I feel a little-- I'm feeling a little deflated by it.
You really want to do something
that people who know a little something think you can't do.
-Yes. -Right?
None of us watched Evel Knievel jump the Snake River
'cause we all thought he was gonna make it.
Attraction to me is, you know, as just an electrical guy,
like, "Oh, my God. These guys are gonna try and do something
that I think is impossible." And so, just basically--
That's encouraging. Thank you very much.
Just to show that it can be done would be great.
But only if it can be done, and our expectation of 180 miles a day.
How do we do it? How do we literally do it?
We're in Rome, Italy, and we're visiting the Formula E Grand Prix.
Thank you.
Which is an electric-powered Formula One type car race.
We're here with world-famous actor, Ewan McGregor.
How do you see the development of electric racing?
I think it's the future, electric. Of course it is.
I'm just very excited about electric cars, electric motorcycles.
The differences are good. You know, it's silent,
there's no vibration between you and the road.
It's exciting, and I'm just-- for sure, it's the future.
Let's do it.
We haven't come all the way to Rome just to play with fast cars.
Do you like my windshield? It's like an inch and a half.
-Hi. -Oh, there he is.
-How are you? -How are you? Nice to meet you.
We've come here to meet Max Biaggi,
a six-time motorcycle racing world champion,
to pick his brains about the technology.
We have a project with Gilo. We're gonna tour with electric bike.
The land speed record-- Do you have an image of the motorcycle?
-Long wheelbase as well, doesn't it? -Oh, my God. It's amazing.
Later this year, Max will attempt to break the land speed record on an electric bike.
So, it will be something new for me,
but, of course, I know enough about the speed,
but for me, it's gonna be something challenging.
-Yeah. -And a huge challenge.
And what kind of practicing can you do? Do you just go--
I have no idea. The first time I do something like this, but I'm very excited.
I think at this stage, it just feels to me like
we're just gonna do it on electric bikes,
and we're just gonna have to try and make it work.
And if we get stuck, we get stuck.
It's too exciting now to turn back on.
It's too exciting not to do it on electric.
Seeing Charley climbing into the Formula E car,
I was reminded that it wasn't gonna be just the electric bikes
that were gonna be a challenge to him.
-Falling off too many bikes, is it? -Pretty much.
But his health.
Yeah, you have to try and get your feet in.
That's it. Then you slide in.
He recently had a second serious motorcycle accident
during the early planning for this trip.
-How is Charley, Olly? -He can't breathe properly.
His lung is collapsed. His blood count isn't good.
They've moved him into intensive care, he's got a swelling around the brain,
and they might have to drill into his skull to let the pressure out.
He's got blood clots on the lung,
and, of course, if they traveled to the brain or the heart,
it could lead to an embolism.
Breathe. There we go.
I mean, he could die.
It was a bit of a fright. Could have lost somebody,
and it was a pretty horrendous accident.
I think then I certainly reflected upon it and thought,
you've got to look after the relationships in your life that are important.
You've got to put energy into them to keep them alive, you know,
and if you don't, you're just--
you're losing something that's very important.
I felt closer to him after that. I was reaching out to him more,
and keeping in touch about his rehab.
I'm only just getting off the wheelchair.
Other people wanna run again or do whatever, but I wanted to get myself
better enough to get back on a motorbike.
Motorcycles are adventures. It is who he is.
It's what makes him feel alive.
Right. I am gonna get on my motorbike for the first time since my crash.
He talks about people being stuck at the accident
and thinking about what they could have done differently,
what they should have done differently,
and that he's talked himself away from that,
and he's got back into life and moving forward, not looking backwards.
He's quite inspirational in that way, Charley, isn't he?
Pretty good, huh? Oh, my God.
I'll get my scooter.
I have to go back to LA for work,
but Charley's been invited to Geneva to test-drive an electric motorcycle.
In fact, it's a Harley-Davidson electric motorcycle.
We're heading off to this little track to have a go on your e-bike.
This is the only one at the moment. So, please don't break it.
Don't say that.
It's a prototype street bike
that they reckon could be converted for our adventure.
-Here we go. -Oh, my God. Look at that.
-It looks totally-- Wow! -And there it is.
Jeez. I didn't expect to feel so happy. You know, so excited about that.
This particular bike, this production bike,
no one, other than Harley-Davidson workers,
have ever been on this bike before.
Looks incredible.
And he said the classic line.
"This is the only one in the world, so don't crash it."
And it's just like, oh, no! Pressure!
Ewan, I wish you were here.
-Okay, here we go. -Enjoy.
It's a incredibly powerful motorcycle,
and he's got it on full power with a slick tire on it.
Cold, slick tire on it.
So I'm a little worried, watching him out there.
That's slippy.
He just lost the back end.
All right, I'm-- I'm nervous now. Tell you that.
Wow, that back tire's slippy.
Well, what do you think, Charley? You could be going over the Andes on this.
It's an amazing bike. It really is, just amazing.
What I think would be interesting would be to have you work with our engineers
and maybe test it out, and we can just get that configuration right.
Another adventure.
I must admit, I would never have imagined
Harley-Davidson making an electric motorcycle.
I've had a few Harleys over the years,
and I'm excited to see if they can adapt this one for our adventure
with the time that's left.
We're here!
I've come to London
so we can all figure out the day-to-day planning of the trip.
Hey, guys. How's it going?
-It's going very well. -Oh, hello.
-Perfect. -How are you doing?
-How was the ride? -You look cool.
Yeah, good. It was-- It's hot.
-How was it? -The traffic's crazy today.
-So, listen, guys. That's... -Take a look at it.
That's it. You sent a picture of this one.
This is 25.
-Thirty-five. -That's it.
It's much smarter than this one.
-Is this your one? -No.
New HQ. London HQ.
We picked up the keys, literally, yesterday.
-That's good. -Pull 'em back.
Is this all the crap that you couldn't fit in your office, is it?
You know what, Charles? Are you-- Did Charles not have lunch?
So many chairs. Let's go. Let's do this.
Watch the back on the wall. You're scratching the wall already.
He's lost the deposit there now.
I'm losing my-- You have to follow me.
'Cause otherwise...
I'm gonna lose my clutches.
Sadly, I managed to break a lot of bones before they decided to move in.
-It's too heavy for me to carry. -I got it.
-Hang on. -Could be from that pouch that he's got.
It's so heavy this thing. How are we gonna get it up there?
Turn it sideways.
It's not going to go through the door. Gotta lift it.
-What'd he say? -A bit of effort into it.
Charley, you tell us what to do, so if it doesn't go up, it's your fault.
-This is gonna be a bit tricky. -That side as well then, Russell.
We turn it round like that?
-No. -I think...
I think we're stuck.
It's gotta stand up like we did with the thing.
-I think-- go right to the ceiling. -It's not gonna go past here.
On the left, above your head. That ceiling.
All these legs will come off. I've got the screws right here. Hold on.
Why don't you bring it back down?
Hold on.
One, two, three, shove!
Yes. It's gone round! Hang on, where am I gonna go?
Got it!
-Good on ya, mate, it's here. Well done. -All right, mate. Not too bad.
Here we are.
I suppose it's sort of a little bit more like a reality now.
Let me just sort out what we got.
Thank God we've got a caviar spoon.
I mean, what were we gonna do without that?
"Where's the caviar spoon, guys?"
Beauty, mate.
-All right, mate. -Thank you, mate.
That looks pretty professional.
Well, professional might be stretching it.
We're available for any sort of decorating, DIY shows,
home improvement, that kinda thing.
As long as they had some maps, we'd be fine.
We do--
The traditional Pan-American Highway route runs from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
But we've done most of that northern part in Long Way Round.
So the new plan is to start our trip in the very tip of South America
on September 1st,
and then ride all the way to Los Angeles
in time to spend the Christmas holidays with our families.
So now you wanna head to Cusco.
There's a lot around Cusco. So that's where Machu Picchu is.
Yeah.
Machu Picchu's about here.
You definitely wanna go to the salt flats, right?
Salt lakes. Absolutely.
That's then called Lago de Poopó.
Forty-eight years old and I'm laughing 'cause it says poopo.
We wanna offset our carbon footprint for this journey.
And so we're gonna do a little scheme here.
It's just in Peru, and it's called Cool Earth.
We're reducing the carbon emissions of our trip, but we want to do more.
Protecting endangered rain forests is critical for the climate and the planet.
So, we're visiting a project in the Amazon
to see how the process works for ourselves.
And we're doing 150 miles every day. It's a long way to go, you know?
It'll give us a lot of time to talk shite, but...
I don't think I've got enough to say.
It's so cool. It's gonna be a cool route. It's really gonna be varied.
Mountains and desert and then, you know, just a massive beach holiday all the way,
all the way, all the way.
Patagonia is such a vast, remote area.
It's over 400,000 square miles of Chile and Argentina.
And we've asked the Argentine Embassy to advise us on charging the bikes.
-This road is very famous. The 40th. -Road 40th.
-Because that's the one-- Yeah. -This one?
The glaciers, the lakes, this is very impressing.
This section here would be very similar to this section here?
-Yes. -Yes.
So, if we did this, and yet we did this, then you get a bit of both worlds.
-Yeah. -Yes.
Just one other thing. Because we're going on electric motorcycles--
How to charge them?
Think you are-- From here upwards, there's no...
Yeah, this-- this will be problem for that.
When you talk the reality of the electric bikes
and then you look at that map and you just think, you know, hard work.
The only bits that worry me are the big, empty swathes of landscape.
What do we do there?
Doing a 13,000-mile trip on an electric motorcycle and filming it
means that we're gonna need a whole team of people
to make that happen.
So each one of these, sort of custom-made phone boards is one day of memory cards.
The distances between cities are just too long for the charging points.
On Long Way Round and Long Way Down, both of those trips we left from London.
The biggest thing for this trip,
which we probably haven't really thought through totally,
is everything's got to be shipped down to the bottom of South America.
And then we start.
On previous trips, we've had petrol camera vehicles.
We've had camping gear in there, filming equipment, medical equipment.
And we're trying to find an electric equivalent to do the same job.
We're heading to Plymouth, Michigan.
We're meeting with this company called Rivian.
And Rivian makes the most incredible
all-electric utility adventure vehicle.
And the thing we've been bumping into,
they aren't really coming to market until 2020, and here we are in 2019.
So, we're gonna meet with them and talk about what's possible
and what's impossible.
And I'm sure, as always, we'll be choosing what's impossible.
It's an old Mitsubishi plant
that they're in the process of converting 2.6 million square feet.
So this is what it used to look like.
This is actual re-prototype to get everything right.
So this is what the whole plant will look like.
The contrast is really striking, huh?
Despite being nine months from mass production,
Rivian have actually offered to give us two brand-new prototype pickup trucks.
But the cars they're talking about building for us
are at the moment only made of clay.
And they'll have to be designed to take on every terrain.
We're gonna go through that snow, desert, rocks, mountains, jungles, mud.
I mean, about everything that's on the planet.
-So, is it ready? -It's perfect.
Yeah. That part's easy.
-That part's easy. Okay. -Yeah.
No, all jokes aside, because we control each wheel with software,
we can make any wheel spin at any speed at any time with any level of torque.
So if we get stuck in the sand, or if Dave does...
-We send torque to the other wheels. -...the car will sort it out.
These vehicles are--
We're creating something that's production representative before the plant's ready.
So we're creating tools earlier than we needed to.
I didn't know about that.
So, you know, that's incredible that you'd even have that level of faith
in what we're trying to do to be part of that.
So, you know, thanks, and we respect that enormously.
This will be the first electric drive from the tip of South America to LA.
-Yeah. -It'll be the first.
So part of that story is we're building--
we're building infrastructure to support that.
There are currently hardly any charging points
for the majority of the countries we want to ride through,
so Rivian are going to install 150 quick-charging points along our route,
which both the cars and our bikes can use.
So, months in advance, we're building out
this backbone-- this charging backbone.
Super excited. I wasn't yesterday. I thought we still had a ton of problems.
These guys, they've given a solution,
but they can solve our bike problem as well.
We are just about to receive the Harleys.
They've adapted their prototype street bike
and we're hoping it can do the trick for our adventure.
-What's in the box? -It's the clutch going in here.
What's in the box, Charley?
Hi, Mark. How are you? Ewan. Nice to see ya.
And now, really, it's the electric Harley or bust.
You nervous?
-No, I'm excited. -Excited?
Excited.
-Okay, here we go. -Wow, here we go.
Big reveal.
-Oh, my God! -Beautiful. God, it looks great.
This is kind of what I think you-- we were all agreed upon, right?
Yeah, yeah. No, wow. I mean, I've forgotten what I'd said.
-Yeah. I was listening. -No, I'm amazed.
We really focused on performance first.
All the roll bars and stuff we're gonna take off for the ride
'cause they're plastic.
Aluminum-made parts will be showing up soon.
'Cause you've already made it look like an adventure bike.
It looks great. Really, you've done a brilliant job.
-It looks great. -Well done.
You know, what was really fun with our team is we took this,
and we took it and six guys and put them in a corner of a room and said,
"Let's build like a one-off bike, and let's go do something fun."
So, this was a lot of fun for all of us, really.
This is the one that you can buy in the shop today, almost, isn't it?
This one.
That is a big difference.
Totally different geometry, yeah.
-Isn't it nice? -It's much taller.
It's a proper tall bike.
It's a really nice position, yeah. You ride that all day, you could.
-All day long. -Yeah.
You know, if it's true it can do 100 miles,
we'd be happy to jump on that bike and go for a long ride.
Okay.
How's that seat?
Yeah, it feels good. Just the riding position is good.
I think the bars could come back even a bit more.
Quite nice, this, in the corners. It's quite good.
You look good on it, Ewan.
This is great. I love this bike.
I'm getting a Harley-Davidson tattoo tonight.
All right!
-How many miles we done? -Seventy-three miles.
Seventy-three miles we've done? 40% left.
-So that's well over 100 miles. Range. -Yeah.
Awesome!
I always said we should go electric.
I said it from the very start we should do electric.
-Isn't that what I always said? -I remember that.
Yeah, yeah.
This is my first charging station. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm quite touched.
This looks like an adventure bike, but the problem is it's just a prototype.
Harley now have just ten weeks to build two rock-solid all-terrain bikes
that can survive the 13,000-mile trip.
It's a big ask.
I'm heading back to the London HQ with Charley
to get the rest of the equipment and ourselves prepared for the trip.
So this is kind of the new technical fabric.
Oh, yes, yeah.
I've tried the jeans on and they're like silk.
You can literally get off the bike
and you would never know that you had armor in there.
I like this one.
I really like this one.
And there's one old friend that we just couldn't do this trip without.
There you are.
Right through the last minute, things are still chaotic,
but then experience shows once you are on the trip, somehow it falls into place.
Claudio's back on board, everybody!
So, we're off to South America,
and neither Charley or I can speak a word of Spanish.
We're going to play a game where I don't speak any English,
and we all speak Spanish.
-Hola. -Hola.
I'm dyslexic. I hate these games.
Muy bien.
Good luck, Charley.
Yo soy actor. Ah, presenta...
Presentador.
The trouser.
Pantalone.
Pantalón.
Chair.
-Silla. -Silla.
La.
You never know.
-You never know.
-If in doubt... -Stick an "as" on the end of it.
It was the first lesson that I've had in my 52 years that I enjoyed.
We are heading to Rivian
to see how the construction of these electric vehicles is going...
and to see how far they've put the charging infrastructure in place.
They've gotta be almost finished.
Due to the time it takes to test and make an SUV actually road-legal,
Rivian must have the first car ready to drive in just two weeks.
This is it.
That's still just the body shell, guys.
What is it, the 002?
...from this to a finished car.
Yeah, so I can put more people on it.
No, I love your optimism.
That's gonna be ready in two weeks.
-All right. -Well--
-Are you ready to see vehicle 001? -Let's go see it. Yeah.
The big reveal. This is Dave's car.
001.
The first-ever VIN Rivian vehicle.
I mean, it's just too much, right?
I thought it might be further down the track. There's a lot to do.
All the electrics are still yet to be put in,
and with two weeks to go, got quite a lot to do.
What an undertaking to build not just two brand-new cars,
but two cars with a technology that didn't exist before.
They've never built anything this quickly before,
and they proudly admit it.
How's the charging network going in?
So that's a huge build-out for us.
We have begun selecting sites. We have begun building those out.
As we speak, chargers are getting shipped down to South America,
and probably next week, early next week, they'll start installing them.
Because that really is-- That's the fundamental thing.
Without 12,000 miles of charging in place...
we won't get to the end. It's as simple as that.
Yeah, so one, one. Okay, yeah, so...
We're split now between America and the UK.
You know, we're doing all of the production work over here,
and then the cars and bikes being prepared over there.
Dave, have you seen the pictures of the snow down on Route 40?
It looks really bad.
It's been the heaviest winter...
since 1994.
We need to be prepared for the worst of the worst in order to continue going.
I'm sort of on the border, basically, between Michigan and Ohio.
There's a proving ground here
where they're testing the Rivian for the first time.
It's right there, look! Look at that!
It was never in doubt, right?
Yo, Russell, you're about to see double-oh-one go around the track.
Hopefully, that's what it won't look like over the Andes.
No--
You can tow charge them. That's what they're trying to do right now,
is test the tow charging capability.
They are tow charging it for an hour,
and they think one hour of pulling it will give it a half a tank.
-First things first. This is Lindsey. -Hi!
Yeah. How's the car going?
Fantastic. She's just waiting for you.
It is finished. We're rolling. Four wheels spinning.
How exciting is that!
It is extremely exciting. It's a good way to end the Friday.
Let's go to South America, right?
Are we in danger of saying Long Way Up is actually happening?
-Very nicely done. -Thanks.
And you got-- God, you got great nails.
My little one and I were doing our toenails the other day,
and she decided to do mine blue to match my bike.
They're supposed to be my lucky trip toenails,
and I don't know that I wanna do the motorcycle trip with blue toenails.
I told Anouk, right, eight. I said, "I don't know what to do
'cause I feel like if I take it off, it's bad luck."
She went, "It's gonna be cold, isn't it?" At first I went, "Yeah."
She said, "You fool, you're gonna be wearing boots all the time.
-No one's gonna see them anyway." -That's a good point.
So how are you--
I've just been back, yeah,
I've said goodbye to everybody this morning,
so I've just been battling that all day long.
Yeah. What, now you're here on your own?
-Yeah. -So it's like,
so it's suddenly from everybody to...
Yeah, just a-- yeah.
I just feel a bit down in the dumps.
You know, you try and stay all strong in front of the kids, but I just couldn't.
I know. It's difficult, isn't it?
Look at Ushuaia.
It's snowing today.
It gets up to about three.
No one's seeing my toenails for a while, are they?
Look, and every day except Friday, it's snowing.
We're in Milwaukee. We're gonna go and see our trip bikes.
See-- For the first time, I think.
We've seen sort of mock-ups of them, and we've ridden the prototype one in LA,
but this is us going to visit the bikes we'll actually ride on the trip.
Oh, my God.
When you look around the corner, you'll see the bikes.
Wow.
Wow, guys.
That's a new suspension on the back you've done as well.
We kind of redesigned that whole back end of the bike.
-It'll look more adventure touring. -Yeah.
We also went through an entire suspension tuning event on this for an entire week,
getting the bike dialed in for just this platform.
Amazing. Wow.
So it's a pretty nice setup as it is right now.
It's good, isn't it?
You beefed these up a little bit as well.
-We did and brought 'em outward. -Yeah.
So, we've made some new brackets so that it truly does protect some more.
Yeah. No, that's fantastic.
So we've added the bash plate on the bottom
so that you guys are protecting all the key components of...
Of the engine.
God, you guys really did listen. That was amazing.
Thank you so much, all of you, for doing such an amazing amount of work.
They did listen... to me.
-I see. Just a little bit here. -Yeah.
-That's just getting painted right now. -Okay. Just can't wait to ride them.
Let's do it.
I know Ewan and Charley love the bikes, that's the key,
but they've gotta ride 'em first to really know.
Oh, my God!
That's beautiful.
Wow, that feels enormously delicious.
They're gorgeous, yeah. Really, really good.
Over those bumps it handles beautifully, doesn't it?
It feels so confidence inspiring.
Awesome.
I really do like it.
Oh, my God, Charley!
-We are so... there. It's unbelievable. -Oh, my God.
Absolutely perfect.
Just so lucky.
Oh, my God. I really like my bike. That's it, I'm in love.
Wow, guys.
That's it. Brilliant.
It's a real relief. The whole thing is just awesome.
All we need to do now is to get them to South America and get going.
Obviously, you know we're Harley-Davidson,
so we have a lot of work on our platter.
So, every one of these guys that have done this has just been volunteer time.
So, they do it evenings. They haven't stopped their everyday job at all.
-Period. Nothing. -I never even asked you that.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's all after-hours kinda stuff.
-Yeah. Yeah. -Shit.
So, they love this stuff. That's our hobby. Yeah.
-Thank you ever so much. -No problem.
Really, thank you so much.
Oh, my God.
These are certainly ready to deal with the terrain.
The question's gonna be, can they do 100 days of 150 to 200 miles a day?
So, the only thing we're missing right now is the brush guard.
Those will be in on tomorrow or Thursday.
So, we'll add those. Those will be on the bikes when you guys arrive in Argentina.
The next time we see them will be in South America, yes?
Well, yeah.
-Way down there. -Tip of Argentina.
Yeah.
-Yeah. -God.
-In the snowpack. -Oh, my God.
Charley and I are leaving from LA, and the bikes and cars from Detroit,
and the filming team from London,
all trying to get to Ushuaia on time for the start,
and all because we wanted to call it Long Way Up.
First success. We're all down here, all the kit's here.
Jesus Christ!
This is how Long Way Up starts, in a blizzard.
The scenery out the window was amazing.
There were just, like, mountains and snow on top of the mountains,
and oh, my God, it looked so cold.
And then you come round a corner, and then there's Ushuaia.
I just wonder how we're gonna start the trip with this weather.