Tributes have been paid to a man who started working at a Norwich motorcycle dealership as a teenager before rising through the ranks to become a director.

Adam Newstead began working at Tinkler’s Motorcycles Ltd on Northumberland Street straight out of school in 1978 when he was 16 years old, as an apprentice mechanic, before being appointed a director 11 years later.

Alongside his wife Alison Newstead, he then led the company for more than 30 years, during which time he sold countless people their first motorcycles and became a stalwart of the county’s biker community.

He died on Friday, May 29 at the age of 58, having been admitted to hospital with heart issues.

Grant Newstead, the youngest of his four sons, said the family had since been inundated with kind words and tributes from across the motorcycling community.

He said: “He had been at the heart of the family business for 42 years - it was such a big thing to him. He used to say that if you find a job you love you will never work a day in your life - and that he had hit the jackpot at the age of 16.

“We’ve been overwhelmed with the number of people that have been sharing memories of him with us - so many people have been saying they sold him their first bike or that he had helped them with something. The reach out from customers has been incredible.

“The motorcycle trade is an industry of passion and he was so passionate about it. He passed that passion onto me and my brothers and it was thanks to him that I was able to live my dream of racing in the British Superbikes.”

Mr Newstead grew up in Poringland and lived on Rosebery Avenue in the village.

While Covid-19 restrictions have limited his funeral on Thursday to just immediate family, people wishing to pay their respects are invited to line Rectory Lane in the village as he is taken to the cemetery.

Meanwhile, the family is collecting donations to the East Anglian Air Ambulance in his memory via a JustGiving page.He leaves four sons, Guy, 34, Jake, 33, Scott, 32 and Grant, 25 and three grandchildren, two-year-old twins Freya and Iylah and one-year-old Tilly.