Claudio von Planta - Motorcycle Filmmaker Interview - ADV Cannonball

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_07 (00:03):
Welcome to the ADV Cannonball Podcast, where we
discuss all things on twowheels, the adventure bike
cannonball, and othermotorcycle-related nonsense.

SPEAKER_05 (00:30):
Welcome to Season 3, Episode 15, Adventure Hannibal
Podcast.
I am joined today by my goodfriend, Aaron Pufall.
Aaron, welcome.
Yeah, bud.

SPEAKER_08 (00:41):
We're sitting here on the aft deck of the
houseboat.
What's the name of this lake?
Nagin Lake in Srinagar, India.
And listeners may be able tohear in the background, there's
a call to prayer happening rightnow.
This is basically 100% MuslimIndian community, and we're near

(01:01):
the Pakistan border.

SPEAKER_05 (01:03):
Yeah, as a matter of fact, we've road that direction
yesterday when we took a coupleof bikes up.
We can talk about that a bitlater on.

SPEAKER_08 (01:10):
Yeah, we will have a full episode about this trip and
it's going to include the traveladvice, what to do, what not to
do.
In other words, all the thingsthat I've done so far and made
mistakes.
If you're ever planning a tripto the Himalayas or India, stay
tuned because we're going tohave a lot of travel tips based

(01:30):
on our disaster.

SPEAKER_05 (01:32):
Yeah, I how to give people advice on how to do it
right is having done it wrongonce yourself.

SPEAKER_08 (01:39):
Absolutely, yeah.
And they're totally avoidablethings.
And everything from the airportsto where to buy things to how to
rent motorcycles here, routeplanning, all that stuff.
But first, normally we start thepodcast with cracking a
sweet-ass IPA, but seeing asthough the call to mosque is
happening in the background,obviously that's not going to

(02:00):
happen.
However, I did smuggle in alittle flask of Johnny Walker
Blue Label just for this rareoccasion that we're in the same
place together.
So let's raise a glass here ofour Johnny Walker Blue, and
cheers, bud.

SPEAKER_05 (02:18):
Yeah, very nice.
Very nice.
Thanks for...

SPEAKER_08 (02:20):
Oh, yeah, it's so smooth.
Oh,

SPEAKER_05 (02:26):
yeah.
Oh, that's delicious.
All right, so...
We've got a lot to talk abouthere.
And this interview is like anhour and 13 minutes.
I think you'd probably cut itback from like 10 hours to an
hour and 13 minutes.
You did a great job on theediting, by the way.

SPEAKER_08 (02:42):
The problem is when you have a person like Claudio,
you just want to hang out andchat.
I have all these questions and Iwant all these answers.
And if I'm interested, usuallyour listeners are going to be
interested as well.
So hopefully everyone finds itjust as engaging as I do.

SPEAKER_05 (02:59):
Yeah, so do you want to give a bit of background and
then we'll jump into theinterview?

SPEAKER_08 (03:05):
In the motorcycle community, Claudio is well known
for his work on the Long Wayseries and most notably about
Long Way Round.
So he actually did all thefilmmaking for every Long Way
series, including the latestwork of Long Way Home.
And in this interview, we talkabout his current work.
He's really passionate aboutelectric vehicles and some

(03:26):
really extreme uses of electricvehicles.
and it was a real honor to talkto him about it.

SPEAKER_05 (03:35):
And with that, let's roll the interview with Borio
Van Planta.

SPEAKER_12 (03:49):
Adventure, endurance, glory.
This isn't just a ride, it's theultimate test of rider and
machine.
The ADV Cannonball Rallychallenges you to ride from
coast to coast, navigatingcheckpoint to checkpoint by GPS
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Take on every off-road stage andyou'll earn bragging rights and

(04:12):
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Own the twisty tarmac and you'llclaim the Checkpoint Crusher
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Every mile counts, every choicematters.
Rack up the points and your namecould be etched forever on the
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This year the routes are harder,the mileage is longer, the glory
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(04:32):
The ADV Cannonball Rally is openfor registration.
Fortune favors the bold.
Sign up today.

SPEAKER_08 (04:50):
Claudio, welcome to the podcast.
Yes, wonderful to meet you.
And I'm in Seattle in thestudio.
And where are you today?
I'm in Souches, a little tinyvillage in the mountains of
Switzerland.
It's definitely a little sliceof paradise.
So what came first?
Was it the filmmaking or themotorcycles?

SPEAKER_10 (05:07):
No motorcycle.
It was just, I had an olderbrother and he already could
ride motorcycles or like mopeds.
At the age of 14, you're allowedto ride mopeds.
And then I was two yearsyounger.
So at 12 already, obviously, Ihad to test it.
I had to try it.
So definitely the motorcyclefirst.

SPEAKER_08 (05:30):
And did you have any formal film school education?

SPEAKER_10 (05:32):
No, the filming, the filming came a little bit by
accident.
So I was keen to find a job,which gives me a pretext to
travel and to discover theworld.
And so I felt journalism wouldbe a good way to find that
pretext, but I was a little bitdyslexic.

(05:53):
So writing print media was neverreally such a good idea and I
was always quite technicalprobably I picked it up with the
motorcycle just to fiddle withyou know at the time even film
cameras it was tech it wasmechanic it was not electronic
so I was always quite good withmechanical things and technical

(06:16):
toys and so at the time itstarted actually my very first
my very first film makingexperience where I had an
ambition to do somethingprofessional.
It was in 85.
I studied already at theuniversity in Zurich, political
science, with the idea to moveinto journalism.

(06:36):
But I felt maybe I should dosomething more image based.
And at the time, it was just thebeginning of video technology.
So it was film, you know, properfilm, 16 mil.
It was very exclusive, tooexpensive.
Only companies could do it orvery rich people could do it.
But then suddenly the video camein and that opened the door for

(07:01):
everybody.
It was cheaper.
It was still at the beginning,it was still quite expensive,
but less expensive than the realfilm.
So in Afghanistan, I went thereeffectively to be somewhere
where you have no competition.
And it was already a war goingon.
The Soviets occupied Afghanistanin 1979 So I came in 85 and I

(07:26):
never did a film school before.
I just felt relatively competentwith a little.
It was at the time actuallystill Super 8, just tiny little
film roles.
And then I came back toSwitzerland and tried to sell it
to Swiss TV and they didn't evenlook at it.

(07:48):
They just asked, where did youdo the film school?
And I said, I haven't done afilm school.
I just, I'm studying atUniversity of Zurich.
And then they just, they didn'teven look at it.
They just said, you know, weonly work with professionals.
I said, okay, fine.
I'm out of here.
And it's probably the best thingthat happened to me in my life

(08:09):
because I never wasted any timeswith these kind of bureaucratic
idiots.
I just, no waste.
That was it.
So I'm very grateful to them.
They reacted.
So I was forced to, to, um, toget out of Switzerland.
Because at the time, there wasonly one TV station in
Switzerland.
It was still state-owned andnothing else.

(08:31):
No other option.
So I ended up selling thefootage in France.
And there, there was an editorfor a news program.
And they felt, yeah, this isactually very exclusive stuff
coming out of Afghanistan.
So definitely we will makecopies.
And I will give you my besteditor to cut the story.
I said, yeah, of course.

(08:52):
Cool guy, great guy.
amazing material, very exclusivefrom Afghanistan.
Of course, I get straight awaythe best editor.
And so this editor, he was alittle tiny Vietnamese called
Pedro.
So I get into his studio.
In the meantime, my Super 8footage was transferred onto the
first generation of videotapes.

(09:13):
U-matic, it was called at thetime.
So really big, fat tapes.
And so I get into the studio ofPedro and he didn't even say
hello.
He just takes my tape, goes intothe machine, fast forward, and
then he turns around and hebasically, the first thing I
hear from Pedro is saying, look,if you are stupid enough to risk

(09:36):
your life for that pile of shit,I think it's about time to learn
how to use a camera.
That was the introduction.
So it was just perfect.
It was absolutely perfect.
So I became very, very quiet andstarted to listen.
And Pedro, he became my mentor.
Everything, the basics fromfilmmaking, I learned from

(09:58):
Pedro.
But he really knocked me downstraight away.
It was brilliant.
It was really good.
And then Pedro, he just startedto show me all the mistakes.
It was a complete disaster whatI filmed in Afghanistan.
He still managed to make alittle report.

(10:19):
I think it was about sevenminutes long.
But it It was hard work to getseven minutes together.
And I was spending before threemonths in Afghanistan.
It was...

SPEAKER_08 (10:30):
And anyone today can just go buy a video camera from
Amazon and be a filmmaker.
When did you first merge themotorcycling and the filmmaking
together?

SPEAKER_10 (10:38):
It actually really happened because of Long Way
Round.
Before, motorcycle for me wasjust a good means of transport
to get from A to B, particularlyin crowded cities where you get
stuck in traffic.
And I ended up in London in1990.
And then I think I was one day,I was using public transport,

(11:02):
the tube on the ground.
And the next day I bought themotorcycle because I didn't want
to waste my time in theunderground.
It was just too awful.
So it was always just the bestway to move around in cities.
And yeah, and then with long wayround out of the blue, suddenly

(11:22):
the question whether I havemotorcycle license became
relevant.
And that was a little bit kindof embarrassing at the
beginning.
Because in Switzerland, Iactually had automatically my
big bike license.
At the time when you made thecar license, that was in 1980

(11:44):
for me, you got automaticallythe big bike license as well.
But then when I came to the UK,they forced me to switch the
Swiss license to the UK licenseand didn't recognize the big
bike, only up to 125cc.
And because I was lazy, I wasbored to make a fuss, and I just

(12:05):
left it like that.
And then suddenly, 2004, theycalled me up for Long Way Round.
And then after a while, Irealized, oh, there might still
be a problem with my license.
And then at first, I tried tofind out, could I switch back to
my Swiss license?
But there was not enough timebecause they just...
got in touch two weeks beforedeparture.

(12:26):
And so I felt the only optionwas to do this kind of, I needed
to do the practical test.
Fortunately, not the Sirianymore, but the practical test.
And, you know, people who watchthe film long way around, it's
an embarrassing start thatactually at the beginning, I
failed my test.

(12:49):
So, you know, that happened.
I didn't turn my head enough,you know, when you indicate left
and right, you need to turn yourhead.
And I didn't do it enough, whichis actually dangerous if you do
it too much, because the primaryfocus always needs to be in
front of you.
And anyway, I failed.
And then that was about a weekbefore departure.

(13:12):
And to retake the test, you haveto wait for 10 days.
So I felt they will just dropme.
You know, how can you hire a guyto film a show when he doesn't
even have a license?
And it showed you the kind ofmentality of the producers, all
four of them.
You know, it's you and Charlieand then David Alexeni and

(13:33):
Andras Malkin.
These four, they actuallystarted this whole idea with
these motorcycle trips.
And so they have a companytogether and then they were
looking for, you know, to hiresomebody who can film.
And I ended up to be thatperson.
And all other producers, youknow, 100%, they would have
dropped me straight away.
But these guys, they see that iknow how to ride bikes and uh

(13:56):
and they could feel that somehowthe chemistry was right uh
suddenly ewan and charlie theyjust told um ross and david look
that's the guy we want um ithink i still don't know exactly
why because they looked at manymany other people but uh just it
was their gut feeling that's theguy and so ross and dave they
said okay we take him anywaywith or without license um you

(14:20):
know who the hell will ask youfor the for the the driving
license if you drive throughSiberia.
And so it just shows you thementality, which is key, you
know, that you just needsomehow, you need to trust your
own instincts, you know, whetherit's legally 100% exactly
perfect or not, try and find asolution later.

(14:43):
And so, well, that's what wedid.
You know, at the beginning, Ijust went with them.
And then from the Czech Republicin Prague, I flew back to try
again.
And then fortunately, So theywere relieved that the second
time around I managed to

SPEAKER_08 (14:56):
get the license.
Yeah.
And that became part of thestoryline of that series.
And I think everyone enjoyedthat.
Yeah.
Let me play a little piece ofcamera that you recently posted
that will introduce your currentwork.
And I apologize in advancebecause you're going to have to
hear your own voice.
And if you're like me, youprobably hate it.
Definitely.

(15:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 (15:19):
Hello.
I'm Claudio from Planter.
I'm a Swiss filmmaker and I willjoin La Croisière Verte to
capture their cleantechadventures all across Africa.
I'm known to have filmed thelong way motorcycle journeys

(15:39):
with Ewan McGregor and CharlieBorman driving around the world
across Africa and across SouthAmerica but my journey as a
petrolhead took a turn in in2010 when I filmed an electric
car driving from Alaska all theway down to Argentina.

(15:59):
That was a long distancee-mobility world record.
It was a game changer.
I realized that electricvehicles will be essential for
clean and future-proof mobility.
In 2019, I was back with Ewanand Charlie and we captured the

(16:20):
next electric vehicle recordwhen they drove electric
motorcycles across SouthAmerica.
And in 2023, I had a chance tofilm a solar-powered electric
truck driving from sea level atChile's Pacific coast, all the

(16:43):
way up to the highest volcano inthe world.
They reached 6,500 metersaltitude.
And now, La Croisière Verte willpush the boundaries once again.
We will drive 14,000 kilometersacross Africa, solar powered at
zero energy cost.
I can't wait to start thatadventure.

(17:06):
We will share many inspiringinsights about Africa's
cleantech revolution.
Stay tuned.
Yeah, it's true.
It's always strange to watchmyself.
It's the new selfie culture.
You know, I'm still kind of theolder generation.
I'm not used to it, but weshould do it.

(17:28):
It's the way it goes.

SPEAKER_08 (17:31):
Yeah, I definitely don't like it.
But talking about the RacingGreen project, who built this
car and what was the chassisbased off of?

SPEAKER_10 (17:39):
The car during the trip from Alaska to Argentina.
Yeah, that was actually my firste-mobility experience.
Again, out of the blue, whathappened after Long Way Round,
because this became very, youknow, it became kind of a
landmark story.
Lots and lots of people aroundthe world watched these shows.

(18:01):
And so because I'm in it, andparticularly whenever I fell
over, you know, you and Charlietook the camera and filmed me
just to have a laugh.
So that's actually the reasonwhy people have seen my face and
And so somehow people connectedto that third person who filmed
Long Way Round.
And then suddenly people startedto call me up if they wanted to

(18:24):
do an expedition.
And they called up and said,look, we saw you in Long Way
Round.
Would you be interested tofollow our expedition?
And so this electric car storyhappened exactly like that.
There were young graduates fromImperial College in London.
And most of them are mechanicalengineers.

(18:45):
electric engineers.
Quite a few of them hadexperience with fuel cells
during their studies, so makingelectricity out of hydrogen and
then running electric motors.
And they built go-karts based onfuel cell technology.
And after that experience, theyfelt actually, yes, it works,

(19:08):
the fuel cell idea to power amachine with hydrogen, then turn
it into electric and runelectric motors.
But in efficiency terms, itdoesn't make sense.
It's not really efficient.
And it's the best way to power acar, something that kind of
drives on a road, is justsimple.

(19:31):
A battery and an electric motor.
End of story.
Just keep it simple.
Why make it complicated inbetween?
And it's the most efficient way.
It's like 90, 95% efficiency,maybe a little bit of heat.
but really not much compared tocombustion engines, for example.

(19:51):
So the efficiency is super,super high with e-mobility, 90,
95% at least.
And so these young engineers,they wanted to prove to the
world that electric cars canhave a big reach, a long reach,
because everybody had rangeanxiety when it came to electric
mobility.
Oh, you drive once around theblock and then the battery is

(20:12):
flat and you are standing thereand you can't charge and it's a
disaster.
So, you know, that was the kindof the vision.
And so this was in 2009.
They had the idea and we didthen they decided to prove to
the world that cars can go longdistances.
They said, let's build a car.
It was a prototype at the timewith a good battery.

(20:34):
I think they had 54 kilowatthours in their battery.
So at the time, it was stillearly, early days with battery
technology.
It was already lithium based,but still quite the battery was
about 800 kilos.
Today, it would be much, muchless.

(20:54):
But they managed to and theysaid, okay, we have a better
battery.
And then the next thing is youneed to have a car that's light
and a car that looks sexy.
Because at the time, the onlyelectric vehicles you had
suddenly in an area like London,they were either golf buggies or

(21:15):
milk floats didn't didn't lookparticularly sexy and and they
felt look to have success in thecar industry it needs to look
good and so they decided let'stake let's take a race car and
it was an existing model of racecar which was given to them by
by the guys who produce it theyare called radicals they they

(21:38):
are you know proper race carsnot really for the road but for
for racetracks and in the backthey have a suzuki motorcycle
engine because these engines atthe time they delivered you know
most power uh the best power toweight ratio and and so instead
of so they they they got it theygot a car from radical without

(22:02):
the suzuki engine in it and thenthey just turned it into an
electric machine so with motorsin uh i think in the back wheels
they had motors and a bigbattery and and you know they
were engineers, they built itall themselves.
At the time already, thesoftware, that's the tricky

(22:22):
part, how you can control thecharging and decharging of the
battery and control the motors.
So they had like a whiz kid inthe team who later got hired by
Tesla because Tesla startedexactly at the same time.
I think 2009, they started tosell the first Tesla's And so

(22:46):
very typically, one of our teammembers, you know, he was really
the bright kid with all thesoftware.
And after our trip, we called itRacing Green.
He then disappeared to

SPEAKER_08 (23:00):
Tesla.
It was a super cool car.
What was the route that wasproposed?
And what was the route that youguys actually accomplished?

SPEAKER_10 (23:09):
They always said they want to do the Pan American
Highway from Alaska all the waydown to Argentina.
And they are, I think it's alongthe coast, mainly.
And then in certain areas, thereis no highway anymore, like the
Darien Gap, you know, betweenPanama and Colombia, there is
just rainforest and jungle andmountains.

(23:32):
And there are some crazy guys,they managed to somehow get
through with a bike orsomething, but it takes them
months to do it.
And today, it's already at thetime when we did it in 2010, it
was really a risky area becauseall the drug smuggling went
through that stretch of land.
So we had to do it with a boatand put the car into a container

(23:59):
in Panama City.
And then the container went toCartagena in Colombia.
And then there we started again,Colombia and then all the west
coast of South America, soEcuador and Peru.
And then in Argentina, we had alittle bit of Argentina and then
we went across the Andes to the,no, a little bit of Chile on the

(24:22):
Pacific side and then across theAndes into Argentina.
So it was pretty much the routethey wanted to do.
And we really managed to get allthe way down to Ushuaia.

SPEAKER_08 (24:34):
And how did you film it?
Were you able to ride amotorcycle?

SPEAKER_10 (24:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's because I knew from longway around to film a road movie
is just the best you do it on amotorcycle and even better if
somebody else rides and the guywho films is on the back of it.
Right.
Like the film Tour de France orevents like that.
And so for the first time Imanaged to film like this and it

(25:02):
was really cool.
It was unbelievable.
It was the first time I actuallyfigured out the power of social
media.
It was just the beginning ofTwitter and I had already a
little bit of a Twitterfollowing at the time because I
did stories with Charlie Bowmanbefore in 2009.
And so, I don't know, I had afew thousand followers on

(25:27):
Twitter, mainly Longway fans,clearly.
But I didn't really know whatthat represents and what that
means.
I was never really an activeuser.
You know, today you have people,they do it on a professional
basis, all these social mediainteractions.
I just had this Twitter accountwith a few thousand followers.

(25:51):
Usually, these stories I do onmy own, like Racing Green or
other ones where I just do itout of my own interest and
passion.
There is no TV commission,nothing.
I just say, look, these are coolguys.
Let's just follow them.
I can do it on my own.
Then I realized doing thisRacing Green trip will be really

(26:14):
tricky.
I will probably probably burnout along the way because it's
so tough to to ride to film todo backups in the evening and
and and it's you know it's areal crazy long marathon it took
us five months to actually dothe whole stretch wow it was
quite quite a big thing and so isaid actually it would be the
best if i could find somebodywho rides a motorcycle and i can

(26:36):
sit on the back so i put out atwitter when i got into the
plane in london to fly across toto alaska and just said, I will
follow these guys with thiselectric car.
It's the first time somebodytries this in the world.
And I'm curious to see how farwe get.

(26:56):
Is there anybody around whocould ride a motorcycle where I
can sit on the back for a bit?
And I arrived in Fairbanks,looked at my phone.
There was already a messagethere from an American guy who
actually was based in Alaska.
He was a helicopter pilot.
And And so it was just crazy.

(27:18):
He apparently, as a helicopterpilot working for the US Army,
he has like shifts of months onthe job and then the months or
even longer, he has kind of freetime.
And apparently, just a few weeksbefore he saw my message, he by
chance watched the Long Wayseries.

(27:41):
And he said, this is reallycool.
Let's buy a BMW.
GS.
And so he bought, he had hisbrand new GS.
And the next thing is he sees myTwitter message.
And he said, this is fate.
Obviously, I have to help thisguy.

(28:01):
You know, this is not byaccident.
This is fate.
It has to be like that.
So he came with his BMW GS bikeand met me in Fairbank and then
he drove all the way, all theway down to Texas.
Then he had to return for hishelicopter job.

(28:25):
But it was just amazing.
And that experience as well, tohave a rider who is a helicopter
pilot, they are so supercoordinated with their
movements.
It's because they use hands andlegs and feet and they can do
everything at the same time.
And I felt completely, totallysafe.
That That's how I managed to getreally cool shots from the

(28:47):
electric car.

SPEAKER_08 (28:49):
I'm sure there's a bunch of GS owners, including
myself, that were influencedfrom the Longway series.
Yeah, I should have got someshares in the BMW company.
And I didn't.
Yeah, they should have given youa referral code or something at
minimum.
That's for sure.
Yeah,

SPEAKER_09 (29:03):
exactly.

SPEAKER_08 (29:04):
And you must have thought that if you made it all
the way to Ushuaia on thisexperimental racing green
vehicle, surely you could do iton pre-production highly
engineered Harley Davidson livewires.
Let me play the clip from theLong Way Up expedition.

SPEAKER_14 (29:22):
I've been dreaming of doing a trip through South
America for years.

SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
But

SPEAKER_14 (29:29):
life got in the way.
And now I've decided to do thetrip with my best friend,
Charlie Broom.
You've got to look after therelationships in your life.
And if you don't, you're just,you're losing something that's
very important.
We'll ride 13,000 miles from thesouthern tip of Argentina all
the way to Los Angeles.
150 miles every day

SPEAKER_13 (29:47):
is

SPEAKER_14 (29:48):
a long

SPEAKER_13 (29:48):
way

SPEAKER_14 (29:49):
to go.
And if that wasn't enough of achallenge, we wanted to see if
we could do it on electricmotorcycles.
I think it's the futureelectric.
You'd be the first people to gothis distance charging as you
go.
Oh, my god.
It's so great, isn't

SPEAKER_13 (30:03):
it?
Oh.
Uh-oh.
The power's just gone.

SPEAKER_14 (30:09):
Well, this is us on the road, Charlie, versus us on
the way, man.
I'm going to get attacked bythis dog.
We'll ride through the brutalPatagonian winter.
Look at that snow.
It's amazing how cold it is.
We're going to climb to theextreme heights of the Andes and
experience the real risks ofhigh altitude.
I can't breathe.
I'm definitely getting sick,Charlie.

(30:29):
Before witnessing the endangeredjungles of Central America.
To think about all of the thingsthat might go wrong.
I think we're lost.
Is this a road?
The woods might be a littlebit...

SPEAKER_11 (30:39):
Whoa,

SPEAKER_14 (30:39):
whoa, I'm falling off! In the middle of the night,
things just go around yourbrain, don't they?
I have real fear.
I don't want anyone to get hurt.
They just roll around.
I'm not going to make it.
Towing somebody on a bike isdangerous.
What if the bikes don't work?
What if we can't charge thebikes?
What if it snows tomorrow?

SPEAKER_08 (30:58):
At least in that clip, I didn't make you listen
to yourself.
In this expedition, did you haveany concerns that these two
bikes and these two prototypevehicles wouldn't make it?

SPEAKER_10 (31:08):
Yeah, I knew from my previous experience with Racing
Green that e-mobility in anexpedition setting is still a
little bit tricky and mostlikely you will have problems
and you will have to repairthings and you will need good
engine engineers to do thesejobs.

(31:30):
And so I still felt, if it'sbefore, these young graduates
from Imperial College, theybuilt their own car the very
first time.
But then I felt if you havecompanies like Harley-Davidson,
I think they decided in 2015that they should probably try
and go that direction as well,just as an alternative to the

(31:52):
traditional combustion engines.
And then in 2019, four yearslater, we could use the first
two serial bikes.
So they were not really 100%prototypes anymore.
They were always kind of theserial product, but not tested.
But I felt it will be probably,you know, it'll be okay.

(32:14):
And then the main engineer whowas in charge of the whole team
to develop that electric livewire bike, she was on the trip.
And so I said, fine.
And so they had like, but it wasstill a pretty crazy situation.
setup.
So you had always aHarley-Davidson engineering team
behind us with a sprinter van, aworkshop, and a trailer with

(32:40):
spare bikes, just in case.
So I said, with all theseengineers behind us, somehow
there will always be a solution.
And then on the Rivian side,because the Rivian, they came
into the story because they feltit If already we do it with the
electric bikes, the range is alittle bit annoying.

(33:04):
It's not as much as you wouldlike to have for an adventure
trip where you want to be ableto do five, 600 kilometers a day
if necessary.
You hardly ever do it, but ifyou want to, it would be nice if
you could have that kind ofreach.
And these live wire bikes, as Iremember, it was something

(33:25):
around 200 kilometers, notmiles, So really not that much.
They had 14 kilowatt hourbatteries and it was just about
200 kilometers.
And so the idea was that youstop over lunch and then you
should plug it in somewhere.
And if you have support carswith a big battery, maybe you

(33:47):
can just suck out the bit fromthe power from the support cars.
And that's when Russ and David,the producers kind of went
around, you're knocking doors ofcar companies who started to
build electric cars, whetherthere's anything suitable
around.
And they ended up with Rivian.
And Rivian didn't even exist atthe time.

(34:09):
It was just the beginning ofRivian.
I think they had a deal withAmazon, with Jeff Bezos, that
they should develop cars anddelivery vans for Amazon North
America.
And they had very tightdeadlines.
I think the Amazon-Rivian dealwas uh 2018 like october or

(34:32):
something and then our requestfor long way up to find support
cars came in march 2019 and thedeparture of our trip the next
long way up trip was inseptember 2019 and so the the
rivian ceo he just felt anywaywe need to go full speed ahead
we have at the time when theydid the deal with longway they

(34:54):
didn't have a single car it wasonly like kind of 3d models in
computers, nothing else.
But it shows you as well thatkind of risk-taking on the
American front.
You couldn't find this inEurope.
It's just not happening.
And that's why very often theAmerican economy is just moving
ahead much faster than anybodyelse because you have people who

(35:17):
take these kinds of risks.
So Rivian decided, yes, let's doit.
We have to test cars anyway.
We have to build it as quicklyas possible.
And then if at the same time, Wehave a little bit of PR on Apple
TV with a Hollywood star.
It doesn't hurt.
So let's do it.
And so they were building thesetwo cars like crazy, but they

(35:40):
didn't have the time to actuallytest the charging system with
the Harley-Davidson's becauseboth companies were just like
desperately trying to move aheadto build the bikes and the cars.
So then both companies shipped,the Rivians were shipped to
Ushuaia, the Harleys wereshipped there and then they
tried to figure out whether itjust and obviously it didn't

(36:01):
work and it absolutely didn'twork at all so the whole point
of having these rivians therewas actually for nothing it
didn't work at all um but thenrivian was the same like harley
they had three engineers on thetrip all the time because they
knew these these prototype carsnot tested nothing they will

(36:23):
break down and and they knewthey need to have the the
manpower and the brainpowerthere to constantly fix things.
And it was like that.
You know, the most amazing filmwould have been the film about
the Rivian engineers trying tokeep these two cars on the road.
It was every night they were,you know, sitting there, you

(36:44):
know, with their laptops tryingto improve the software.
Unbelievable.
And so it was certainly a goodexercise for them to get the
Rivians up to speed.
But on the Harley side, we hadto find other ways to charge and
you know if you are in citiesand so on you can always find
you have infrastructure you canfind you know mains power and

(37:07):
plug it in somewhere but in themiddle of Patagonia it was
difficult and you know and itwas you know it was shown in the
film that it was sometimes alittle bit sketchy problematic I
remember the very first time inPatagonia we were on our own the
Rivians were gone anyway wecouldn't kind of do much with

(37:27):
the so we had to look forourselves and so we came to one
of these amazing farms in themiddle of nowhere you know
thousands of sheeps around andthey had wind wind power because
there is constant wind so windpower works and so they were
very proud yeah no problem youcan come here and charge your
bikes um because we have our ownuh power generator with the the

(37:49):
windmills and you know of coursethe moment we plug in the two
bikes boom everything goes blackall the fuses were gone

SPEAKER_08 (38:01):
and yeah it was just dead finished keeping in mind
that this was six years ago andthe technology has come a long
way even with level one chargingadapters have you seen this
german kid who's going aroundthe world on a zero no no no no
i haven't seen it no yeah he'sactually doing it and he's doing
it quite the same way that he'splugging in level one to just a

(38:22):
normal outlet uh when he'schecking into airbnb so he's
actually doing it and i'm surehe was in inspired by Long Way
Up.
And that's a great example ofjust using everyday consumer
level technology.
But let's move on to the nextadventure and let me play the
trailer.

SPEAKER_10 (38:50):
As a filmmaker, I'm attracted by adventurous and
life-changing stories.
I'm always looking for visionarycharacters with mind-blowing
ideas.

SPEAKER_06 (39:01):
Our dream is to take electric mobility beyond its
limits.
We're going to build a newelectric truck and take it up to
almost 7,000 meters to thesummit of the highest volcano in
the world to set a new altitudeworld record.
We are developing a commercialelectric vehicle This world

(39:22):
record expedition will prove itscapabilities beyond any doubts.

SPEAKER_10 (39:27):
These three engineers know what to expect.
They traveled to Chile beforeand undertook

SPEAKER_06 (39:32):
an exploratory expedition.
We reached the summit at 6,893meters and the conditions were
extremely cold.
It was very hard to breathe andit could start snowing anytime.
But we managed to scout the wayfor our truck all the way to the
summit.
I wonder how it will be possibleto reach 7,000 meters altitude

(39:55):
with a truck.
We are convinced our truck willreach the summit because it has
very special features.
It has a very low center ofgravity because of the battery
packs and our electricpowertrain is not reliable on
oxygen from the air.
So we will have full power allthe way to the summit.
We will also be completelyenergy independent because we

(40:17):
charge our vehicle with solarpower.
The rigorous

SPEAKER_10 (40:21):
planning is impressive, but what strikes me
most is the ingenuity and thecraftsmanship of the Peak
Evolution team.

SPEAKER_06 (40:29):
We have been a tight team for over 20 years and we
have done everything together.
We've built vehicles since wewere little children, but this
truck is the biggest projectwe've ever done.

SPEAKER_10 (40:42):
I'm also impressed by the lifestyle of the Peak
Evolution team.
They restored the house on theirown and are totally energy
self-sufficient.

SPEAKER_06 (40:51):
We renovated an old warehouse to make it our carbon
neutral dream home.
Lots of sports is also part ofthe healthy lifestyle.
To make it up that mountain wehave to be extremely fit and our
mountaineering skills will helpus reach that goal.

SPEAKER_10 (41:10):
First the boys have to build their truck.
At the moment it looks likeground zero.

SPEAKER_06 (41:16):
This is the most stripped our vehicle is ever
gonna be.
We spent two years designingeverything, getting all the
parts ready and now we'reputting it together and in a few
weeks it will be ready to drive.
We already installed thedrivetrain, the cabin and the
box at the back will go up soon.
Follow our channel to find outif we finish the truck in time

(41:39):
and make it up to the top of thehighest volcano in the world.

SPEAKER_08 (41:42):
Again, you found yourself in some really cutting
edge technology.
You found yourself in someextreme terrain.
It must be really special todocument these great engineering
projects.

SPEAKER_10 (41:55):
Yeah, I'm just an observer.
I'm not really doing it.
But if I meet people who havesuch crazy ideas, I'm just
fascinated.
I just feel These are reallycool stories I want to capture
and to spread and talk about.
And so I was already hooked one-mobility.

(42:18):
I was fascinated to see what youcan do.
And, you know, very practicallyfor the filming, it's pretty
cool because it doesn't make anynoise.
So, you know, that's likesomething you never think about.
But to sit on a bike, anelectric bike, which doesn't
make the noise as a filmmakerthat's like the perfect world

(42:41):
because you get all the soundyou can hear the voices people
talk to you and it's very goodfor filmmakers and so I was
hooked on e-mobility and I wasyou know it's still just the
beginning of e-mobilitytechnology you know we will

(43:01):
still see crazy developments andit's happening very fast
unfortunately much more on theChinese front than anybody else
because so many industry leaderson the combustion engine side,
they are too arrogant and thenthey didn't realize that
actually the future liessomewhere else.
Yes, it's true, Mercedes or BMWor whoever, they are building

(43:24):
incredible combustion engineslike they are the world's best,
but it's the dead end.
It's definitely the dead end.
It's not the future.
And so you have countries likethe Chinese, they invest into
this technology, like in astrategic way, like other
people, other countries investin defense, in armies.

(43:45):
So, you know, China invests intechnologies in a strategic way
and with the same spirit, evenso it may be at the beginning,
it's not like commercially agreat success at all, but they
still continue investing it likethis long-term vision.
And so when I met by chance,again, these three Swiss

(44:06):
engineers, and they were talkingabout this idea that they want
to convert an existing dieseltruck, 4x4 truck, which is used
here in Switzerland in the Alpsby farmers, you know, to go up
steep hills and to catch the hayand so on.
So they are very, you know, kindof the Rolls Royce type of 4x4

(44:28):
trucks.
Not very big, because in themountains, you know, smaller,
but they can carry about 10tons.
And And they are very kind offlexible.
You can steer the front wheelsand the back wheels.
And so you can even traverse,not just go forwards and
backwards.
So it's like the Rolls Royce or4x4 trucks here in the Swiss

(44:49):
Alps.
And they felt it's strange.
You know, the whole world talksabout kind of trying to switch
to e-mobility.
Everybody talks about cars.
But why is nobody talking aboutagriculture?
All the machinery you have inagriculture, which runs on
diesel.
diesel.
And so like the guys in 2009,2010 with Racing Green, they

(45:14):
wanted to show to the worldelectric cars can go long
distances.
And these guys, the Swiss guys,they wanted to show that
agricultural machinery could beelectric.
And to prove that it works welland even better than any diesel
engine could do, they said,let's do an altitude world
record.
Because all the three, they werevery good engineers,
mountaineers, very topmountaineers.

(45:37):
So they understand what'shappening in high altitudes in
wind and snow and glaciers andcrazy temperatures.
And they just felt that would beinteresting.
So they were looking around,doing some research and figured
out there is this one volcano inChile, Ojos del Salado.

(45:57):
It's in the Atacama Desert andit's nearly 7,000 meters.
So I don't know in feet how muchthat is, but it's high.
And that place, you had allsorts of people who tried to do
altitude world records withcars, with trucks, with all
sorts of things.
I know we met the Swiss guy.

(46:19):
He's there every year trying togo higher and higher with his
motorcycle.
So far, he was always on KTMcombustion engines.
And now this year, he will beback again for the first time
with an electric motorcycle.
And so these Swiss guysbasically decided, let's build a

(46:39):
truck here in Switzerland, shipit across to Chile, and then try
whether we can get up.
And then, of course, if it'selectric, the question is, how
do you charge it?
And so they came up with theidea to charge it with solar
panels.
So they designed it in a waythat they had a whole pack of
solar panels inside the truck.

(46:59):
You know, the panels you see onthe roofs of houses, nothing
sophisticated, nothing special.
It was quite heavy.
I think 450 kilos or 500 kilos,all the panels together.
And it was a little bitlaborious.
You had to kind of take themout, put them on the ground, you
know, connect them with all thecables.

(47:20):
But with these solar panels,they were totally
self-sufficient and they reallymanaged to charge the truck at
the Pacific coast, zero meters,and then slowly, slowly go
higher and all the way through,all the way up to, we They
managed to get to 6,550 metersaltitude.

(47:41):
So it's unbelievable.
And yeah, it was such a coolexperience.
Just to see you can do it.
You can do it.
It's great.
And the funny thing at the sametime, whilst we did the record
with the electric truck, like aseven ton truck, you know,
that's a lot of weight and allgoing up with solar power.

(48:02):
And parallel to us, there was aPorsche team doing exactly the
same, actually the same route.
So it was quite fun at the endfor our story to have this kind
of competition between Porsche,you know, like a top car brand
with loads of money behind it.
And then these three Swiss guyswith absolutely nothing but just

(48:22):
their brains and some real, realskill.
It's a good story.
So the film is soon finished.

SPEAKER_08 (48:30):
And I'm not a subject expert, but I do know
for a very steep angle extremelyhigh altitude mission, a
electric drive system has a lotof advantages.
You've got 100% torque at thefirst revolution of that wheel,
and there's zero power loss asyou lose oxygen as you climb to

(48:51):
higher altitudes.
But anyways, we will leave thatdiscussion for people that's
smarter than me.
And then after this project, youstumbled into yet another
project with EV and again, anextreme environment.
You took four ridiculously smalltoy cars, essentially, from

(49:12):
Paris to South Africa.
Maybe you can tell us how yougot roped into this mission.

SPEAKER_10 (49:17):
Yeah, so that's my latest e-mobility adventure.
And as I said before, it's justpeople approach me.
They call me up because theyknow I like this kind of crazy
clean tech trips and I'm used tobig, long expeditions.
And so this particular story, itwas called La Croisiane So it's
very French.

(49:37):
It's a French initiative.
And the name basically meansgreen cruise in a way.
And it's based on a previousexpedition, which was called La
Croisière Noire, the blackcruise.
And that was a story in 1924,organized by André Citroën, the

(49:58):
founder of the Citroën carcompany.
He managed to organize the firstmotorized crossing of Africa
North.
South in 1924.
And that was the CroisièreNoire.
And La Croisière Ouvert, theGreen Cruise, is now kind of the
brainchild of a French guycalled Eric Vigouroux.

(50:18):
He was a former rally driver.
He did Dakar rallies, all sortsof rallies all over the world.
It was absolutely his passion.
You know, a crazy petrolheadburning thousands and thousands
and thousands of litres ofpetrol.
And then suddenly, you know, didthis about 20 years and then
suddenly his kids came to himand said look daddy if you think

(50:41):
that's cool don't you realizeit's completely ridiculous and
and irresponsible haven't youheard about the problems of the
co2 and and and you know wastingpetrol for for nothing just for
kind of racing around and sodaddy became very quiet probably
a little bit similar like whenpedro told me you know i should

(51:02):
learn how to use a camera it wasthat moment for him.
And so he actually then realizedthey have a point.
And so he started to look intoe-mobility.
He had a whole team of engineerswith him.
And so they started to playaround and build electric

(51:23):
buggies.
He was still into rally.
And then by chance, Eric, hefound this book, La Croisière
Noire, which is the story ofthis expedition in 1924.
And he read this book and says,this is just how cool is that.
And it would be amazing to dothe same, but 100 years later
with new technology.

(51:44):
And so that's the background ofwhat we did.
So the start was in Paris inOctober 24.
We started on a big carconvention.
It's called La Mondiale de Loto.
It's a kind of a French big carconvention in Paris.
So we started there with alittle bit of press.

(52:05):
at the beginning.
Then we had to drive down toMarseille to catch the ferry to
get across to Morocco.
And then the official start,which is really to the day, 100
years after André Citroën, itwas on the 28th of October, 24.
We started in Morocco inOuarzazate and just went south.

(52:26):
16 countries all the way down toCape Town.
And you don't know whether itwill work.
But The same thing was, it waselectric and solar powered.
The solar power idea actuallycame from me because I spoke to
Eric whilst he was developingthe expedition in 2023.

(52:49):
And I already had thisexperience with the solar power
truck in Chile and said, look,if you do something on
e-mobility front, it would bereally cool if you try to be
self-sufficient with solar poweras well at the same time,
because that is the realfreedom.
If you do expeditions far awayin the middle of nowhere, you

(53:10):
don't have to worry about thenext petrol station because you
make your own power.
And yes, you have to wait alittle bit.
Maybe if there are clouds, youwait until you have sun again,
but what's the problem withwaiting a bit?
It's actually fun.
It gives you time to do all thethings.
You can go and meet people,discover local culture.
So the waiting, it was never aproblem.

(53:33):
And so that's basically the thestory of what we did.
And it took us four months toget to Cape Town.
And there were moments where itwas tricky and we had no
support.
It was just five people.
So four people in these littlecars and me on a Chinese
electric motorcycle.

(53:53):
That was an experience initself.
And the cars, maybe just a fewwords to the cars.
It's like the antithesis to theRivians.
It's like the opposite to theRivian.
A Rivian is probably three tonsor something.
Massive.
And it has a massive battery aswell, like 140 kilowatt hours.

(54:16):
The models we had in Chile in2019.
I don't know how much they havetoday, but it's huge.
But the problem with e-mobility,the whole logic behind
e-mobility is that you try to bemore efficient in your energy.
And it's the same concept likeyou know if you heat a house and

(54:38):
you want to reduce your energyconsumption to heat your house
you know you should insulate itproperly first otherwise you
just burn too much and the logicwith electric vehicles is an
electric a heavy electricvehicle is just stupid because
you waste too much energy justto move your tons around so the

(54:58):
lighter an electric vehicle isthe better and more efficient
and that's why eric actually andhis engineers they decided to
choose this ridiculous toy car.
It looks like a baby car.
It's actually designed for kids.
It's not like the type of caryou think, oh, yeah, I'm an
off-roader.
I'm a tough guy.
I have a big four-wheel drive,Land Cruiser, Land Rover,

(55:21):
whatever, big tires, everything.
No, no, no, no.
It's the opposite.
It's a ridiculous looking toycar made for kids.
It's actually originallydesigned for kids, for
teenagers, because you can driveit at the age of 14.
You don't need a drivinglicense.
And so it's like a little nichemarket where they thought maybe

(55:42):
we can catch some customersthere.
And it is actually a Citroën aswell, which is cool because it's
the 100-year anniversary ofAndré Citroën's expedition in
1924.
And we rock up again with aCitroën car, but not what you
expect.
It's a little toy car.
And of course, it was adapted.

(56:02):
The engineers of Eric, theychanged a few things.
The original model has a frontwheel drive, but now the models
we took for Africa, they changedit to back wheel drives.
They had two motors in eachwheel and then they had a bigger
battery.
We had 30 kilowatt hoursbattery.

(56:23):
And because the car is light, wehad a range of once it was over
600 kilometers with one charge.
So that was on flat roads,tarmac marked roads and no wind
against you.
In Mauritania, we could do 600kilometers.
But even on a dirt road, whichkind of consumes much more

(56:45):
energy, you have more resistanceon the road.
Even on dirt, we had still 400kilometers.

SPEAKER_08 (56:51):
It's another great example of you don't need a 800
horsepower trophy truck or a$35,000 GSA to go on an amazing
adventure.
And I watched these guys pick upthese little electric cars out
of mud bogs and going acrosssand and going across all types

(57:12):
of terrain.
It really was an amazingadventure.
And I actually didn't know youwere on a cheap little Chinese
motorcycle.
So that's super cool

SPEAKER_09 (57:19):
also.
Yeah, exactly.
I

SPEAKER_08 (57:20):
know we're running out of time and I promise we
wouldn't be more than an hour,but I wanted to quickly share a
movie that you made that I justposted on our motorcycle film
club.
And this is called a Kurdishmovie.
And this is filmed in theKurdistan region of Iraq.
And it's with your buddy BillyWard, who's a gregarious

(57:41):
character on his own.
And let me quickly play theintro to that.

SPEAKER_10 (57:45):
Hi, everybody.
After a few years, I found agreat opportunity to revisit the
long way around filmmakingstyle.
No Ewan and Charlie at themoment, but I found Billy Ward,
another great bike adventure whowas brave enough to face my
cameras.

SPEAKER_03 (58:03):
There ain't nothing stopping us, only the leaving.
John Wayne, 1962.

SPEAKER_10 (58:09):
Billy has lots of experience in organising
expeditions in Africa, SouthAmerica and Australia, but I
suggested to explore motorcycletours in new, uncharted
territory.

SPEAKER_04 (58:20):
Where did you take us, Claudio?
Here.
I mean, seriously?
We're on holiday, for God'ssake, Claudio! Why don't we just
throw ourselves off a cliff?

UNKNOWN (00:00):
...

SPEAKER_10 (58:35):
Despite Billy's trepidation, I patrolled him
into a bike adventure in theKurdistan region of Iraq, where
I made good friends over thepast 20 years.
He was certainly up for it.

SPEAKER_02 (58:46):
Oh, my Lord.
There you go.
These are all for you.
Choose your bike.
Wow.
Yesterday, I was here, and I wastold Billy wants this one,
because that flies.

SPEAKER_10 (59:02):
And this was just the beginning of our lucky
streak.
I

SPEAKER_04 (59:05):
really don't believe this, Claudio.
I just do not believe I'mdriving a police car with blue
lights and...

SPEAKER_10 (59:15):
It didn't take long to feel at ease with our police
bikes and blend in with thelocals.
Just a normal night out inElbel.

SPEAKER_01 (59:23):
Sure, I am okay with my husband.
I don't want Finnish cityeverywhere.

SPEAKER_04 (59:30):
And that's good with me.
I'm happy, happy, happy.
This is what it's like living ina war zone.
This is just a normal evening.
That's it.
Motorbikes in Kurdistan!

SPEAKER_08 (59:53):
It must have been a real treat to go back to the
Middle East and this time not todocument a war zone or interview
Osama bin Laden.
It was a unique experience tograb a couple of motorcycles and
you ended up with these reallycool police bikes somehow.
And what was it like for you togo there and essentially go on a

(01:00:15):
nice little vacation with yourbuddy, Billy?
Yeah,

SPEAKER_10 (01:00:17):
it was such a fun, such a fun, crazy story.
And I had to, idea to actuallytry and do a motorcycle trip in
the north of iraq because i metbilly ward who hired me to do a
kind of a trip in in peru at thetime and normally it's done

(01:00:38):
through charlie boorman he hadlike his fan club and then
sometimes he goes on motorcycletrips and and people come on on
paid vacation to to do thesetrips with charlie but then he
he had an accident and couldn'tdo it anymore and so i just
stepped into as kind of the planB.
And that's how I met Billy Ward.
And so he started to explain meabout the trips they do with

(01:01:02):
Charlie in Africa, in Australia,in South America, different
places.
And then I, because I had a lotof connections in Iraq, I did
quite a few stories there with aKurdish friend.
And I, you know, quite often inconflict zones, if you meet
people and You work with them,you develop an incredible base

(01:01:27):
of trust because that's the onlything that works.
Nothing around you works, butfriendship is the key.
Actually, quite often in anegative way, you say, oh, yeah,
it's like a mafia organization.
Yes, it's true.
It's like a mafia styleorganization, everything based
on trust, but it doesn't need tobe criminal at all.
But it's just the only thingthat works.

(01:01:48):
You have friendship and it'sjust a code that you help each
other.
If you can help, you help.
That's the deal.
And so that's what I experiencedwith the Kurds.
And because they are a minority,they are persecuted in all the
countries they live.
They are split up between Iraq,Iran, Turkey, Syria.

(01:02:11):
They are always a minority andvery often they have troubles
with the central governments andthen there are conflicts.
And so the Kurds are, for thelast hundred years, effectively
after the the first world warwhen they got split up they were
always having trouble and theystill have troubles today but in
the north of iraq it'srelatively stable at the moment

(01:02:35):
you know after saddam was takenout since then it they managed
to keep that area like anautonomous area and so i knew
it's definitely possible to gothere and it would be so cool to
do it on a motorcycle and i justtold billy saying look if
already you have to these payingclients, you know, paying a lot

(01:02:56):
of dollars for, you know, fancymotorcycle tips, you should
offer them something properlyexclusive.
You know, everybody goes toAustralia and Africa and to
Kenya, to safaris, you know,what's special about that?
But Iraq, you know, let's do a,let's do a, let's do a kind of a
test.

(01:03:16):
And so he was reluctant, butsaid, okay, okay, that's good.
And Billy, he's just a great,fun character.
And so we ended up in northernIraq and my Kurdish friend, he
was preparing the ground and thefirst mission was how you, where
you find the motorcycle and whatkind of motorcycle.

(01:03:38):
And that was already the startof the story.
You can't find any decentmotorcycles there.
It's not possible.
But he had good connections withthe police and so we ended up
with police bikes.
You know, we You know, in whichcountry around the world you
could go as a motorcycle touristand effectively get some police

(01:04:02):
bikes to do your trip?
I couldn't imagine anywhere.
But there we basically just agood connection with the head of
police.
No problem.
Yeah, just take two of ourbikes.
And so Billy and myself, we wereriding around on police bikes
with the blue light andeverything.
It was so funny.

SPEAKER_08 (01:04:21):
Yeah, it was really cool to see you ripping around
on those borrowed police bikes.
And if anyone wants to listen toour interview with Charlie, it's
season three, episode three.
And it was really cool to talkwith him as well.
And speaking of Charlie, I wantto play the trailer for Long Way
Home.

SPEAKER_14 (01:04:41):
My name is Ewan McGregor.
And for the last 20 years, mybest friend, Charlie Borman, and
I have traveled to some of thefarthest corners of the world.
Yet we've never properlyexplored the countries on our
own doorstep.
So this

SPEAKER_13 (01:04:54):
time, Europe is our playground.
And we're doing the journey onvintage, temperamental
50-year-old bikes.

SPEAKER_14 (01:05:02):
I just love them to death.
I shouldn't say that.
Motorbikes are dangerous enoughas it is, you know what I mean?
It's great to be back on theroad again.
Travel up through the vastNordic countries...
I've got splinter in my bum.
Do you want me to have a look inthe tent later with the

(01:05:22):
tweezers?
And into the Arctic Circle.
It's bloody freezing.
Down to the beautiful Baltics inEastern Europe.
Look at that view! Beforewinding our way through the Alps

SPEAKER_13 (01:05:34):
and across France.
We've got about seven and a halfthousand miles, but these roads
are dangerous.

SPEAKER_14 (01:05:40):
Are you okay?
No, I'm good.
Oh, man.
I had a little crash.
I just lost control.
We're going to find some metalworker who can fix my bike.

SPEAKER_13 (01:05:49):
It's the international thing.
If it doesn't fit, hammer it.
It always works.

SPEAKER_08 (01:05:54):
It must have been a nice change to not being a war
zone or in a desert or the highmountains.
It must have been a walk in thepark to film in Europe.

SPEAKER_10 (01:06:04):
Yeah, it was definitely totally different in
dynamic than what we did before.
I think the toughest clearly wasLong Way Round, the very first
one, you know, where everybodywith good reasons said, Siberia,
you can't do it.
It's impossible.
You can't do it.
And we were very lucky that weactually managed to get through.
We just by chance had a windowof one week to get through

(01:06:27):
Siberia where you had still thepermafrost, the ground frozen,
and we didn't have rain.
And so the the water levels inthe rivers that was still slow
down and we could get throughthe rivers.
Even for the trucks, it was justthe limit.
A week later, it wouldn't havebeen possible anymore because
then the permafrost started tomelt and then the water levels

(01:06:50):
in the rivers go up like crazy.
And if it rains, then the waterlevel goes up and we have only
one day of rain in Siberia.
So we were very lucky to get itthere.
And then Africa was tough aswell.
certain areas in Sudan goingthrough the deserts and the sand
and then the heat.

(01:07:11):
So that was pretty tough.
Long way up, it was just thetechnical challenges with the
electric bikes, trying to findcharging points.
That was a new dimension.
And now the long way home, goingup through Scandinavian
countries and then EasternEurope, you think, oh yeah, it's

(01:07:32):
all easy.
And usually it's It's always,you have to be careful if, or I
realize whenever I think it'seasy, not necessarily because
the challenge we had here onLong Way Home is just like so
much rain, rain, rain, rain,rain, rain up in Norway.
You know, it's beautiful.
Norway is beautiful, but I can'treally remember to see much

(01:07:55):
because there was always cloudsand fog and rain and a few
glimpses of a sunbeam once in awhile, but really not Not much.
So that was actually a realchallenge from the filming
point, how to capture somethingif everything is wet, wet, wet.
Unfortunately, we have nowtoday, we have all these action
cameras.

(01:08:15):
And for the first time, we usedthe Insta360 360 degree cameras,
and they are all completely 100%watertight.
And so we managed, even in thecraziest rain, we still managed
to capture a few impressions.
You know, a long way around 20years ago, we didn't have these

(01:08:35):
gadgets we didn't have drones wedidn't have waterproof cameras
so it was we were lucky that wedidn't have much rain on on long
way around yeah but that wastricky the rain was tricky

SPEAKER_08 (01:08:47):
yeah one raindrop on that lens and the whole shoot is
is done for charlie and ewan hadthe antique motorcycles did you
have your trusty gs on thisadventure no no no no no no no
no no gs

SPEAKER_10 (01:09:01):
no it's effectively so it was clear you and charlie
they wanted to do it on theirvintage bikes and on my side um
they just told me you know likethe production crew they just
told me find a bike whateverworks with you and this time
around for the first time on thelong race series we decided to

(01:09:22):
be two on the bike effectivelythe experience i had in uh in um
during racing green in 2010 youknow having one guy riding and
i'm on the back filming and sowe replicated that system on
Long Way Home.
And the guy on the back calledMax Cruz, he came from Chile.

(01:09:43):
We worked together already onLong Way Up.
That's how we met.
He was actually the local fixerin Chile, but he's a very kind
of multi-skilled guy.
He's a producer.
He's a very good photographer.
And because the chemistry workedwell, we then decided it would
be cool if Max gets on the bike.
And so we are two on the bikeand he can film i can film and

(01:10:07):
and we can double up and so wejust swapped and then the the
key was because we are two onthe bikes um it was important to
have a bike that's low so whenwe stop you know with your two
legs you know both feet fully onthe ground to keep the bike
steady so that the second guy onthe back can can film and move

(01:10:29):
around and so the gs's they weretoo high and and so we found a
KTM.
So finally KTM made it into thelong range shows.

SPEAKER_08 (01:10:41):
Yeah, that was a big blunder with season one.
But did the KTMs make it or didthey throw a cam?
They're famously known forbreaking down.
No,

SPEAKER_10 (01:10:48):
no, no, no.
The KTM was absolutely fine.
Absolutely fine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was a KTM 790, not like thebiggest model, but the whole
keys was it was lower than theGSs.
And, you know, it was easy forus, like the vintage bike, that
was more problematic.

(01:11:10):
I think Charlie didn't have anyproblems with his BMW.
1975, I think, was the year.
But it was very well restoredbefore he left.
So he didn't have any problems.
And Ewan had a little bit ofproblems, but not much.
I think it was more electronic.
The spark cables for the sparkplugs, they kind of got detached

(01:11:33):
or they had...
humidity in it and then but wecould it was good for the story
you know if it's too smooth it'stoo boring

SPEAKER_08 (01:11:41):
whenever there's a delay that always just adds to
the story and a little breakdownadds a little bit of color I
want to ask about the future didCharlie and Ewan give any kind
of indication if there was anappetite for another episode of
the

SPEAKER_10 (01:12:04):
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm usually not involved in thedecision making.
I just come on board wheneverit's ready to go.
But I'm sure there will be moreshows.
I think Ewan and Charlie, theyjust love to do that stuff.
And I think it will go againmore into Asia.

(01:12:27):
Nice.
I push them for China.
That's what I tell them.
Look, that was actually theoriginal idea, the very, very
original original idea for LongWay Round was doing the trip in
China.
I think it's even explained inthe film because Yuan, his wife
grew up in China.
And so he felt it would be niceto discover the country where my

(01:12:49):
wife grew up.
But at the time in 2004, it wasstill too complicated with
permits.
It was still too closed.
And so they realized it will bevery problematic.
And that's why then they camewith the idea.
Okay.
Then just do the round the worldtrip.
And, uh, but I still would liketo go to China.

SPEAKER_08 (01:13:11):
All right.
We got the scoop.
Maybe just maybe the nextepisode will be in China, China.
That's it.
That's fantastic.
And do you have any projectsthat you're personally working
on that maybe you're excitedabout?
Yeah, at the moment I'm, I'mvery

SPEAKER_10 (01:13:23):
busy trying to get this, uh, uh, this Africa trip
off the ground.
You know, I shot lots offootage.
I was on the road for, you know,four and a half months, a 135
days shooting every day.
There is a lot of material andvarious cameras.
Everybody in the team had littlecameras to film themselves.

(01:13:44):
So there's a lot of greatmaterial to cut.
I could easily cut the 20 partseries, but I haven't found a
broadcaster yet who goes for it.
But the material is there.
So I'm now in the process oftrying to find the place where
to get the story out.
I could make something shorteras well like a feature length

(01:14:06):
documentary for festivals orsome some conventions or
something but to do justice tothis huge trip where we really
saw a lot a series would be veryappropriate so that's what i'm
busy with that

SPEAKER_08 (01:14:22):
i will put the trailer in the show notes the
link it's french but it'ssubtitled and it's definitely
worth a watch it's reallyentertaining oh that would be
cool and based on that film andyour breath of work and even
prior to the motorcycleexperiment you're currently on
I'm going to award you thecertified badass sticker
certified badass there are only100 of these in the world and

(01:14:46):
hopefully you stick it on theside of your next motorcycle for
your next big adventure

SPEAKER_10 (01:14:50):
brilliant brilliant that's how very cool very

SPEAKER_08 (01:14:54):
cool well thanks Claudio so much for taking the
time to talk to us today andhopefully it won't be too long
before we see you on your nextadventure

SPEAKER_10 (01:15:01):
yeah wonderful thank you thank you for your interest.
It's quite fun to dig in mymemories trying to remember.

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:11):
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have
your attention?
I've just been handed an urgentand horrifying news story.
And I need all of you to stopwhat you're doing and listen.
Cannonball!

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(01:15:47):
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Claudio von Planta - Motorcycle Filmmaker Interview

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Claudio von Planta - Motorcycle Filmmaker Interview