Your Dream 5

A twist on the "who would you like to have at a dinner party alive/dead/real/made-up" parlour game. Who would be your dream 5 touring partners?

Laura Crawford
I write this, not just because if I don't, I'll be sleeping on the lawn tonight, but because, she's been my greatest touring (and life for that matter) partner. We both got into touring at the same time so our riding styles and rhythms are the same. We can tell when we're each getting tired, we like to ride at the same pace and we both have a love for serendipity, gravelly roads and uncertainty. We've toured with a few people, enough to know that everyone has their own touring style and most likely it won't synch up with yours.

Chris Quint
I've mentioned Chris a bit on the site and even shot a video of him and his Carradice/boat cleat trick. A lot of what I know about touring came from him. In his pre-retirement life he was a teacher. He still is. There's never a dull ride with Chris. He's one of those persons with encyclopedic knowledge that will talk about foliage and fauna you're riding by and about the minutiae of beer brewing in the same 5 minute span.

The Great GP
I've never met The Great GP in person, but from what I've read from the Riv. Reader, he sounds like he would be loads of fun to do a tour with or atleast an S24O. That happens to be on my "bucket list" btw, to do a S24O with Grant. Before I discovered Rivendell, I was a bit lost. Trek, Specialized, Giant and Schwinn and the kind of riding they really promoted didn't speak to me. I knew there had to be something else, but what? That's when I discovered bike touring which eventually led me to Riv.

Barbara Savage
If there's any one thing that really got my blood moving about bike touring it was Barbara Savage's "Miles from Nowhere." For me, she seemed like the most approachable and kind person. She seemed honest about her short comings but still persevered. Here is someone that did something epic in scale but wasn't necessarily epic in stature. She made bike touring feel like something I could really do. It became accessible and not just some unreachable fantasy.

Ian Hibell
I would have loved to just sit around a little wood fire and listen to Ian Hibell talk about his adventures all night. Crossing the Darrien Gap, pushing through the Sahara. Maybe he'd even give me a copy of his book Into Remote Places, which is now ridiculously expensive on the trader's market. I just want to read the darn thing, I'll give it back! From what I've read and the little footage I've seen of him he's a traveler through and through. It would be great to hear what makes him tick and keeps him moving despite the harshest of conditions.

So who and why are on your top 5?