Mike Johnson, from Sholing, loves to ride his 1950 Jim Guard, one of a fleet of old bikes he owns.

But not before he brought it back to life and learned all about the history of the Southampton made model.

Mike, who found the bike on Ebay and collected it from West End in 2013, told the Daily Echo: "I was looking for a vintage Rotrax, as I wanted a racing bike made in Southampton. This popped up, but I hadn’t heard of ‘Jim Guard’ before.

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"After some digging I found out Jim Guard would have been my local bike shop, and had his shop by Bitterne train station, from 1949 to 1989, I think. While I was restoring the bike I did more research into Jim, and his wife Olive. They were both keen members of Southampton Wheelers Cycle Club. Olive was part of the winning ‘Best British All Round’ team in 1954, and Jim was president of the Southampton Wheelers. Both sadly passed away now but cyclists all their lives!"

The Jim Guard is Mike's dream bike, but he has since found an even older rotrax ripe for restoration.

He loves to ride the roads of Hampshire and beyond.

"My favourite little local loop is out to Hamble and back, but I like to ride into the South Downs, and the Meon Valley, and occasionally along cycle route 24 up to Salisbury and out the other side into the Wylye Valley and Fovant Down," he said. "We are lucky in Southampton that we are only an hour or so ride into some really beautiful countryside."

Mike finds commuting by bike in Southampton easier than the four mile rush hour journey by car. His eldest son has picked up the cycling bug from him with a place on a race team in France this year, Covid permitting.

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