When Daniel Addai Fobi first saw the driveway in Ottawa’s Bel Air Park neighbourhood covered entirely in bicycles, he wasn’t sure what to think.
“I couldn’t count them, there were so many,” said Addai Fobi, who as a newcomer from Ghana first met Grant Gilliland in 2024.
As he would soon find out, this was what Gilliland’s driveway usually looked like.
Gilliland is known around his Nepean neighbourhood as the bike guy, but also the guy who’ll fix anything.
“Anybody who posts something on Facebook and asks, ‘Can anybody look at this?’ I say I’ll look at it. Anything that rolls in my driveway, a lawnmower, or anything like that, I’ll attempt to fix, and I usually do,” Gilliland said.
It’s common knowledge in Bel Air Heights that Gilliland receives used bikes from neighbours and Facebook contacts, fixes them up using scrap pieces and gives them away for free — often to newcomers in his community.
Before he was the neighbourhood bike guy, Gilliland worked in warehouses across Ontario in various roles. An auto mechanic by trade, he’s also been a forklift business owner and a tool rental repairman at Home Depot — but he’s always been a fixer.
His idea for the bikes began through a post on a local Facebook group he saw while at his cottage in Norway Bay, Que., in the winter of 2022.
“Somebody posted that they were looking for somebody in the village who can fix bikes. So, I said, ‘I’ll do small jobs on bikes, but I didn’t have any parts,’” he said.
Hoping to get spare parts from other bikes, Gilliland put out a call. “I posted and said, if anyone had old bikes, to bring them to me and I’d see what I could do with them,” he said.
Before he knew it, the bikes kept pouring in, he said. “That first winter, I ended up storing 130 bikes,” Gilliland said.
Ever since he brought his bike repair work to Ottawa, he’s had a steady stream of used bikes, bike parts and people who want bikes on his hands.
His wife, Laurie McKnight, and his friends help him find parts, often through Facebook.
“It’s amazing how many people happen to have bikes sitting around in their houses,” McKnight said.
“Right now, I’m up to about 130 of them,” Gilliland said, adding that just this past weekend he fixed and gave away about 10.
Gilliland often finds homes for his refurbished bikes with the community’s newest members. It was Addai Fobi who helped connect him with newcomers from across Africa.
Addai Fobi, a former Pentecostal minister in Ghana, first came to Ottawa to advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, which is outlawed in Ghana. When he arrived, Gilliland and McKnight opened their door to him.
“They just accepted me. I was treated as if I were in my own house,” Addai Fobi said.
Today, he’s the leader of a group at the Kitchissippi United Church that supports LGBTQIA+ refugees across Africa. Addai Fobi said he was inspired by the generosity he witnessed while staying with Gilliland as a newcomer.
“If you go to Grant’s house and you don’t meet him, you’ll meet his bicycles,” Addai Fobi said.
Through word of mouth and Facebook, Gilliland said, he’s given bikes to newcomers from beyond Africa, including from Iran, Lebanon and the Philippines.
“We’ve counted, between (Addai Fobi) and me, the 33 different countries (of people) from around the world that came for bikes in the driveway,” Gilliland said.
This spring, Gilliland said he didn’t have many bikes at first.
“I thought it was too much work. Then, Daniel says to me, ‘I got 40 people new to our group that want bikes,’” Gilliland said, noting that there were more than 40 names on that list.
Just like he stumbled upon his identity as the bike guy, he often seems to stumble upon more work.
“They had this other (bike), but there was no seat on it,” he said of a recent job.
“So, I looked at it, and I said, I’m going to take this back with me. It had a flat tire. It had no seat, and it had no brakes, and the kids were riding it.
So, naturally, he took it home, refurbished it and delivered it back to them.
“I cannot count the number of bicycles Grant has given away,” Addai Fobi said.
Though usually prospective bike owners make an appointment, some of them stumble upon him when seeing his driveway, Gilliland said.
“So, I say, ‘Well, who needs a bike?’ And they’ll have their kids in the car. There was this little girl — and she’s maybe three years old — and she needed a bike,” Gilliland said.
“Her dad was asking, how much? And she’s in love with it. I said, ‘OK, now here’s the price: that smile that she just gave me was payment enough.’ All kids get their bikes free here. That’s it. This past weekend, I think I got about 10 bikes, and I gave them all away,” Gilliland said.
But his charitable efforts extend beyond bicycles. Before he was the bike guy, he was the book guy. Gilliland began collecting and donating used books about nine years ago.
He says he now gives away about 4,000 a year to local schools, charities, food banks and other organizations.
“There used to be a little library outside of St. Paul’s Eastern United Church, and I built that. And I couldn’t keep up with the books that disappeared from it.”
After a trusty callout on Facebook for more books, Gilliland said Boomerang Kids in Barrhaven responded, asking if he would take children’s books. He accepted, not realizing he had agreed to take two carloads of children’s books.
From there, Gilliland said, “Boomerang called me every two weeks or every month, with a carload of books that they wanted to give away, and I said, I’ll take them,’” he added that he’d also received books from the Friends of the Ottawa Library.
Now his dedication is being recognized by Ottawa West–Nepean MPP Chandra Pasma as the recipient of her annual “Good Neighbour Award.”
Gilliland, nominated by his neighbours, was one of 25 names sent to the MPP as a way of recognizing community members who brightened people’s lives, Pasma said.
“When I read the nomination form and saw all the things Grant’s been involved in, I saw that it’s an immense contribution to our community. He’s incredibly deserving of this,” the MPP said.
Addai Fobi wasn’t surprised by the news. “When he told me he won the award, I knew this day would surely come. He needed to be honoured,” he said.
This kind of support is what brings a community together, according to Pasma. “It’s making sure that it’s a warm and welcoming place for everyone, whether you’ve been here your whole life or whether you’ve just arrived. It’s telling people, ‘We want you to feel welcome, and we want your needs to be met,’” Pasma said, adding neighbours like Gilliland brought so much joy and connection.
“They don’t argue even if there’s a bit of rust on the bike. They’re happy to have a bike. They’re just so happy,” Gilliland said.
Though he’s usually busy with a steady flow of incoming bikes, Gilliland’s also working on a new project.
He’s filling his engine-powered wagon mobile — which he often uses for food bank donations — with books for the first time for the Bel Air Community Association’s Summerfest on June 6.
And he’s made it clear that he won’t let anyone pay for them.
