On your bike! But which one to choose

He’s the man with 16 cycles ... so no excuse to miss out on his daily bike ride! David Clayton chats to veteran cyclist John Kerrison.

- David Clayton

I was poring over an old school photo the other day. You know the sort of thing, where the whole school is lined up and you all stand very still as a camera pans around the hundreds of pupils. Inevitably, a lad standing on one end ran round to the other end, beating the speed of the moving camera and appeared twice on the photo. He got a detention but we admired his pluck.

On the Great Yarmouth Grammar School photo taken in 1969, I’m standing there next to classmate John Kerrison. Since our schooldays, John and I have bumped into each other a few times over the years, but thanks to Facebook, we now know what each other is up to.

We’ve discovered we live in pretty much the same area of Norfolk. Having snapped pictures on my daily strolls near my home, I noticed he’s posted similar views on Facebook, but he’s not walking, he’s cycling. So are many more people of late, but John seems to be taking a different bike out each day and it appears some of his ‘fleet’ are quite ancient.

So, we had a good old catch-up chat and, like me, as a lad growing up in Gorleston he’d jump on his bike and explore the nearby countryside. I’d forgotten this, but he reminded me that he and few others had persuaded the school to allow cycling as part of our games afternoon activities. I didn’t opt for this, but John explained how it worked: “The deal was we cycled off, ending up at a police station where we got our homework books stamped to prove we hadn’t just gone off for a crafty smoke.”