im steven..wnaa be a bike messenger

1. dye your hair purple.

2. wear funky, second hand clothing...and knickers. you gots to have knickers.

3. stink.

4. ride like this:

Too bad you didn't see the cyclist at the Olympics. At least you'd now want to aspire to be a genuine athlete.

I don't mean to belittle the messengers... certainly they appear to be accomplished cyclist. But the messengers work a reasonably small geographical area. Mostly bike messengers shuffle legal documents from office to office so contracts can have actual signatures. Although glamorous... when viewed from a movie screen... it is a hard, low pay, thankless, job.

That's complete madness!

That's complete madness!

Yes, insanity of the highest order. There's more messenger madness on YouTube if you can stand watching morons tempt fate. The last couple of generations of kiddies turned riding for big city services into retardedness of the highest order. Lawless, suicidal, drug-fueled [censored].

Riding as a messenger usually required one to be a risk taker in the old days and...ahem!...'individuals' were the rule. Now, it's just utter retardedness.

As I stated in another thread, I used to know a few of the NYC messengers from the 1970's. It was a different time with different attitudes. The risks were the same, but how they were dealt with are polar opposites to how today's riders behave.

it is a hard, low pay, thankless, job.

In NYC they are despised. After watching the video you can see why. Bike theft and parts stripping are the least of your problems. Dooring, crushing and stiff-arming are more important daily distractions...as are gangs, guns and drug O.D.'s. Road rage attacks are the norm...was it Toronto where the cabbie purposefully backed over the cyclist and tore off one of his legs?

Other than dangerous working conditions and low pay, one of the few perks is getting to look at all the hot secretary pie. Getting stoned on your down time might count as a bennie for some.

Don't get me wrong. There ARE some very professional, long term riders. I knew exactly ONE of them, personally. The rest burned out, were injured, got too old or their reflexes slowed or they just found better jobs (didn't take much!).

Although glamorous... when viewed from a movie screen...

Or if you are Kevin Bacon!

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Forgot to add...

Messenger services have beed downsized, obsoleted and largely replaced by the intarwebz and the advent of the digital signiture becoming a legal reality. AFAIK, a few legal firms and courts use them to shuffle documents and you might find some engineering/architectural outfits still send full-size drawings to job sites or clients by means of a messenger service. I'm told there are some auto repair joints that receive hot job (small) parts in Cleveland by bike, but I've never actually witnessed that. I HAVE seen tons of parts-runners in cars and trucks.

so are there any bike messenger companies in new haven? lol none of the posts so far have answered my question. i know its low pay and dangerous but i still want to do it.

stevenanrob said:

so are there any bike messenger companies in new haven? lol none of the posts so far have answered my question. i know its low pay and dangerous but i still want to do it. Â

Well, if you live in New Haven, check the phone book and ask around. Maybe some bike shops will know. How is anyone else who doesn't live in New Haven supposed to know if there are messenger services there, short of using the same tools you can use: search engines.

lol none of the posts so far have answered my question.

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All the NH courier services seem to use motor vehicles. Try dialing a few of the larger area law firms to see if they use bike couriers.