UK TIMES ARTICLE ON EWAN

THE NEXT STEVE MCQUEEN?

California is well known for having some of the best motorcycling roads in the world. But compared with McGregor’s challenging earlier rides, the short trip I proposed we should make risked, I feared, being seen by the 37-year-old Scottish-born actor as dull and artificial. The plan was to ride into the Santa Monica mountains behind LA, then wind down onto the Pacific Coast Highway for a bit – one of the best riding roads in the US. To reach it we would ride the Topanga Canyon loop, with its steep side roads, which I was told were a blast to explore by motorbike, shrinking to a single lane hugging the side of the mountain, climbing and descending with no guard rails and little room to manoeuvre until the road comes down and meets the coast.
We would stop off for fish and chips at Neptune’s Net in Malibu, where the roaring thunder of motorcycles mingles with the sounds of sea and surf. It is a famous bikers’ haunt, California’s answer to the Ace Cafe in London, the world-famous gathering point for UK bikers. Our journey paled in comparison to the rough road from Yakutsk to Magadan in Siberia that McGregor had ridden in 2004 in Long Way Round. That road is known as the Road of Bones because it was built by Stalin’s political prisoners. McGregor regards it as the most memorable and arduous part of his 22,345-mile trip from London to New York. CONT. HERE