Leigh residents can borrow a bike free for two months

Leigh residents can borrow bikes and cycling equipment free of charge at Leigh Bike Library, based at Leigh Youth Hub. The service opens on the first Saturday of each month from 9am to noon and on the first and third Mondays from 5pm to 7pm, excluding Bank Holidays.

Members can keep a borrowed bike for up to two months. Helmets and other cycling equipment are also available, while qualified bike mechanics provide free repairs. The service is intended for the general public and carries bikes for different ages, including children.

Leigh Bike Library opening hours

The library follows a recurring monthly timetable rather than operating every day.

Monday sessions do not take place on Bank Holidays. No specific end date for the service has been published in the supplied information, so residents planning a visit should use the recurring schedule and account for that exclusion.

The bike loan service operates from Leigh Youth Hub in Leigh, Greater Manchester. The source does not provide a street address, transport instructions or accessibility information. It also describes access as a membership service but does not give registration steps or say whether advance booking is required.

What members can borrow for free

Leigh Bike Library offers more than short-term access to a bicycle. Members can borrow a bike, helmet and other cycling equipment for as long as two months at a time. When the loan ends, they have the option to buy the bike for considerably less than the cost of a new one, although no purchase prices are stated.

Free repairs are available from qualified bike mechanics, helping members keep their bicycles in working order. Wigan Council says the library has 545 members and is the most successful bike-lending service in Greater Manchester.

The range includes children’s bikes, allowing younger riders to develop their skills without families having to buy a new bicycle at the outset. Adults can also use the service for exercise, family rides or a more active journey to work.

One loan began a wider health journey

The practical value of the service is illustrated by Leigh mother-of-six Claire Carey, who joined after her youngest son, Gianfranco, asked her to cycle with him. Carey, 47, had not ridden for 35 years when she borrowed a bike on 7 July 2025.

She initially struggled to cover two miles, but within weeks she was riding on most days and gradually increasing the distance. Carey said she lost 15kg during the two-month loan and has now lost seven stone over 12 months. She regularly cycles as far as 17 miles and has also taken up strength training, paddleboarding and open-water swimming.

Carey used weight-loss medication during part of the process, describing it as a useful tool alongside increased activity. Her account is a personal experience rather than medical guidance, but it shows how access to equipment removed the immediate cost of trying cycling after decades away from it.

“Getting on a bike was the catalyst to finally losing weight and, more importantly, becoming healthier and fitter,” she said. Carey has since bought her own bike and is working towards completing a 50-mile ride in one journey.

How the free service developed

Wigan Council’s Be Well service opened Leigh Bike Library at Leigh Youth Hub in April 2023. A second Be Well Bike Library began operating at the Gearing Up Workshop in Wigan in February 2026 and had attracted 194 members by the time of the council’s report.

The Wigan location has a different timetable: it opens on Wednesdays from 4pm to 7pm and on the third Saturday of each month from 9am to noon. Anyone intending to use the Leigh service should instead attend its first-Saturday or first-and-third-Monday sessions, remembering that Monday openings exclude Bank Holidays.

Source: Wigan Council