Will Gillingham-Sutton
Tour Guide
My baptism of fire was a motorcycle trip across Canada and the United States (Halifax, Nova Scotia – across to LA – up to Vancouver) with my two brothers, all on Suzuki V-Strom 650s. Before that, I had only ever done day ride-outs, and here we were embarking on an 8,000-mile-plus journey that took just over two months. It was wicked! Since then, I’ve ridden around Cambodia, Vietnam, done the North Coast 500, the Black Forest (great tour by the way, totally recommend it), and all around the UK. So many good stories.
I grew up on a small farm riding dirt bikes. My dad and two brothers have always been into bikes. I thought they were mad until I revisited riding and got my licence to commute to work about twenty years ago. I always try to work on the beast (BMW F800GS) myself rather than getting someone else to fix it. I just like to know what’s going on with the machine I rely on during my travels. The Haynes manual and YouTube are my bibles. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no maverick mechanic, but I like to have a reasonably educated guess of “what the hell is making that sound.”
Other than bikes (yes, believe it or not, there are other things), I teach and run photography studios and darkrooms at a university. I lived in Paris for a couple of years and learnt to speak French, grew up in Kent, and now live in North London. I love gardening, go to dance and life drawing classes every week (God, now I do sound old), and I love a pint and a roast – preferably on a Sunday ride out of London to a country pub.
Check out Will's three favourite trips