What do you need to know about Simon Weir? He rode his first motorcycle at 15, worked as a despatch rider in London when he was at college and after university became a journalist.

Eventually he managed to move onto motorcycle magazines, where he tested bikes for more than 15 years – finishing as editor of RiDE. He's written the best-selling books A-Z Europe for Bikers, A-Z Britain for Bikers, Bikers' Britain and Biker's Britain: The Tours.

He's toured extensively in every western European country and ridden on four continents. He has a RoSPA Diploma in advanced motorcycle instruction.

He has two grown-up kids, drinks gin, plays guitar in punk bands and he's quite tall. The last bits don't have any bearing on his biking knowledge, but suggest he's a rounded, sensible human being. Apart from the punk-band thing. That's a bit odd...