Simon Hancocks

Editor

Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!

Prior to Visordown, Toad worked in the motorcycle insurance industry, before creating a role at a small motorcycle website and starting his journey as a journalist and road tester.

Since then Toad has launched bikes on all of the world's continents that aren't permanently frozen, covered hundreds of thousands of road test miles and always maintains that a bad day on a bike is better than a good day in a car!

Toad is happiest when touring through Europe, hammering a big adventure motorcycle up a trail, or riding around a race track, his favourite is Jerez, accompanied by a Panigale V4! He had a go at trials once, but it'd didn't go terribly well - his ambition definitely outweighed talent!

Now Toad is working through the restoration of a classic Ducati sports bike, and yes, it's taking much longer than he planned.

Triumph Tiger 900 Visordown Review
Triumph Tiger 900 T-Plane engine explained
Here's an in-depth look at Triumph's new T-plane crank engine, how it works and how it feels, on and off-road
Triumph, Kawasaki, Yamaha shootout
Mid-weight naked shootout – MT-09 vs Z900 vs Street Triple RS
Visordown puts the cream of the mid-weight naked class through their paces
camless valvetrain
Are camless engines going to be the next big thing?
Visordown takes a look at what could be the next big thing in motorcycle engineering
Norton Dominator Street
TOAD TALKS: Who is going to buy Norton?
IF one positive has come from the sad demise of Norton Motorcycles, it’ll be the amount of publicity the firm has had in the past month or so. As Oscar Wilde once said: ‘The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.’