The pandemic may have halted the way of life for many in the past year, but for Ferguslie Park charity Own Yer Bike it has been its busiest year yet.
The organisation, which fixes old and damaged bikes to give back to the community, has been catapulted from a small group making repairs, to a bustling organisation collecting hundreds of bikes each week.
It was started just two years ago by Marc Small, who began carrying out bike repairs for residents in the Tannahill Centre.
Now with six fully trained bike mechanics, an ever growing collection of bikes and a blossoming list of volunteers who help teach youngsters how to look after their bikes, it has become a vital service well known by many in the Ferguslie Park community and beyond.
Marc explained: “We have never been as busy as this.
“We haven’t stopped since the beginning of the pandemic.
"I never thought it would grow to what it has, especially so quickly.
“I started out myself two years ago fixing bikes for people in the back of the Tannahill Centre.
“Now we can’t get bikes fixed up and out the door quick enough.
“There has been a massive increase in need for what we do in the past year.”
Just this week, Marc and the other bike engineers took in a donation of more than 100 bikes which they will repair and give back to the community.
The group currently supplies bikes for children for free, and also sells low cost bikes for adults with the cash used to cover the costs of the repairs carried out.
Marc says he is delighted at how the community has embraced the group, as well as others from across the west of Scotland who have been in touch to donate and request bikes.
He said: “We may be a Paisley-based group, but we have people getting in touch with us from further afield, such as Port Glasgow and East Kilbride, asking for bikes.
“We are reaching more and more people, which is great and I have started keeping a note on a map of how far we are reaching now.
“All we ask for kids’ bikes is a £5 returnable deposit to secure the bike they want and then it is theirs for free.
“It always makes us happy to see kids out on their bikes knowing we helped to make that happen.
Their growing success has inspired Own Yer Bike to branch out, having recently been awarded a Renfrewshire Council contract to collect discarded bikes from refuse sites and give them a new lease of life.
Each week, Marc and his team visit the sites at Underwood Road and Linwood to rescue any bikes set for the dump.
They are now hoping to work with the council and obtain a bigger premises for their workshop to help manage their ever growing collection of bikes in need of some TLC.
Dad-of-three Marc also wants to team up with some of the areas supermarkets in the future to set up regular pop up bike repair events.
He added: “At the minute, we are working out of containers at the Tannahill Centre, but, at the rate we are going, we are going to need even more space to keep up with the number of bikes we have.
“We’re hoping to work with the council in the future to make that happen for us as donations just keep coming.
“Some nights we are out until 9pm collecting bikes from people who have contacted us.”
Own Yer Bike is also looking to recruit more volunteers to come and help them gets bikes fixed up and back out in the community, with Marc adding: “We are looking for more people to come and help us, we’re really busy and haven’t stopped all year, so having some extra hands would be great.”
If you are interested in volunteering you can get in touch via Facebook at Own Yer Bike or call 07761673985
