Perth man pays it forward repairing and giving away hundreds of bicycles

Jeremy Devereux's home is bursting at the seams with bicycles - and none of them are his.

Throughout the year, the Beechboro father-of-two has repaired and given away nearly 600 bicycles to grateful strangers after discovering his knack for repairing the two-wheelers in January.

"At the beginning of the year I have a few bikes lying around the shed – I fixed them up, gave them to kids," he said.

"[Then] I noticed that at about the same time we had our council collection and there were a lot of other bikes and I thought, I could fix these.

"I grabbed a few here and there, brought them home, fixed them up and gave them to the local kids, before you knew it I had 20 extra bikes on the property and the local kids were looking pretty good."

Mr Devereux then began giving bikes away on the Facebook page Pay it Forward Perth and soon found himself repairing more than 10 bikes a week.

"Suddenly people were bringing me trailer-loads of bikes," he said.

"It's ridiculous how many bikes come through this place – everything from children's bikes to adult bikes - I've had some really expensive bikes come through."

Mr Devereux, who owns his own pool technician business, says he believes repairing the bikes was a calling and that the more he gives, the more he gets back.

And the closer to Christmas it gets, the more he seems to be giving.

"There is an increase [at Christmas time] but all year long there is a demand," Mr Devereux said.

"There is more interest in children's bikes and sometimes if I put a male and female bike up at the same time, people with not much money will leap on the concept of 'oh we can get one each and give one to each other for Christmas'."

The self-confessed tinkerer says he has no plans to stop donating the bikes, despite admitting the side of his house is cluttered with "bike carcasses and rims on racks".

"It's a calling, I believe," he said.

"It just felt like something I should be doing... I've committed to [carrying on] next year."

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