A FOUNDING member of a popular Bromley cycling club has passed away, aged 79.

Brian Loakes helped establish the Green Street Green Cycling Club which had more than 500 members during its peak.

It started around 1973 and continued into the 1990s with numbers dwindling as parents grew more concerned about road safety.

Mr Loakes would take youngsters on cycling trips round the countryside where they would stay at youth hostels.

He lived in Worlds End Lane, Orpington, until about a year before his death.

Mr Loakes worked for Transport for London as a garage manager and was passionate about buses and trains as well as bikes.

Daughter, Alison Cruise, 52, who now lives Surrey, said her father was an "eccentric who insisted on wearing shorts whatever the weather."

She said: "The club became very well known locally.

"Since his death, many people have told me that my father instilled in them a love of cycling".

The club is the subject of a book by Phil Turner written in 1996, called the Story of the Green Street Green Cycling Club.

The funeral will be held on August 20 at 2.15pm at St Marys Church, Worlds End Lane.