Geoff Winwood
Tour Guide
I was born in Stratford-upon-Avon (yes, like Shakespeare!), where I lived until my parents very sensibly moved our family to Somerset. I spent my formative years living near Exmoor, where I began my lifelong love of motorcycles. One of my earliest memories is of my dad collecting me from playschool on his Norton ES2 with a sidecar. I had to hold onto him with one hand and my school cap with the other! It clearly scarred me for life, but in a good way!
Skip forward ten years, and I could be found riding a friend’s Triumph Tiger Cub and Matchless 350cc on farm lanes, attempting to drive banger racing cars, and generally playing with anything that had an engine… some things never change. As they say, you don’t have to grow up just because you get older!
All of this led to my career as an engineer, working mostly in aerospace, manufacturing helicopters, and my hobby of restoring and riding classic motorcycles and cars.
I didn’t have a car until I was 22, preferring instead to travel everywhere on a series of motorcycles. First, my Suzuki AP50 moped, then onto my much faster Yamaha RD250. I ended up with two of these, plus an RD350 and RD400… I still love the smell of 2-stroke exhausts even now! The rest of my motorcycle history is too long to list but includes a foray into trail and trials riding on Yamaha and Honda dirt bikes, and diverse road bikes from Harley to Honda and AJS to Ambassador, all of which I’ve either restored or maintained myself.
I now live in Spain, largely because of the climate and the extraordinary motorcycling roads. I first got to know Magellan after meeting a tour group on the UK to Spain ferry. I recognised kindred spirits, introduced myself, and we soon started working together, including the great joy of hosting their whole team in our home in Spain!
From there, I travelled on the Grand Spain tour, followed by the Pacific Northwest tour in America. I enjoyed the BMW off-road training week in the south of Spain, and last year I helped to lead the “Alps, Dolomites, and Italian Lakes Tour” plus a trip around Sicily. Most recently, I helped to lead the Morocco tour.
It’s difficult to pick a firm favourite tour as they’re all so different, but for me, the combination of riding and scenery makes the USA difficult to beat… then again, I love riding in Europe, which has such wonderful culture… and Morocco is different from anywhere else in the world, especially when you get off the tourist trail as we did. Mostly, I love meeting people and sharing the adventure of exploring new places while being on my motorcycle!
Check out Geoff's three favourite trips