‘I wish I still had it’
THE BUYER Boorman’s hunt for an XR
Global adventurer Charley Boorman has just completed the third instalment of the Long Way TV series alongside his friend and fellow bike-nut Ewan McGregor. So with some time on his hands, what would be top of Charley’s used bike searches? “This is an easy decision,” says Charley. “I owned a Honda XR600R for a short period of time in the mid 1990s and I still really wish I’d never let it go – it is one of my very few regrets in life. That bike was beautiful, it was immaculate, which is so rare for an off-road bike.
“At that point I was really into trackdays, doing about
20 or 30 a year. I would nip to Brands for an evening trackday twice a week, I was obsessed. I destroyed my Suzuki GSX-R750 and I bought the XR to tide me over before selling it. God I wish I’d never done that.
“I bought the XR just after we filmed Serpent’s Kiss, which is where I met Ewan for the first time. Ewan’s daughter was ill in hospital and I went to visit them on the XR, dropping off a few sandwiches as he was stuck waiting to see the doctor. After I left I pulled a monster wheelie going down the King’s Road and
Ewan rang and said ‘that put a real smile on my face, thanks.’ “Living with the XR wasn’t easy. The only way to start it was to sneak up on it from behind because if it saw you approaching it would never fire into life. I swear to God this is true, it could be a bitch. One time I was filming a movie in Wales and I got the crew to take the XR in a truck. I got dropped off in mid-Wales and smashed my knee so hard on the bars when I failed to kick it properly I thought I’d broken my kneecap. “Buying another XR600R is on my list of things to do, if anyone has a nice one for sale please get in contact via Instagram. Ideally it would also have an electric start conversion!”