Portis

A recent thread got me thinking...

I live in the midwest where bike messengers do not exist. I have never seen one in my 36 years of life. I suppose that makes me a hick. So do many other things. Proud hick, here. Very proud.

rover-r-us

seen a food delivery guy one time on a bike.

BostonFixed

I have never seen the president in real life, but I have seen many bike messengers, so therefore the president is not real and bike messengers are. Maybe bike messengers are the president?

Portis

Is he a bike messenger?

jhota

yes, but not where i live. only on vacation and business trips.

Machka 

Yes!! I've seen quite a few of them, in fact.

This is the website for a bicycle shop in Winnipeg that caters to bicycle couriers:
https://www.naturalcycle.ca/
I've dropped in there on a number of occasions and chatted with the couriers that hang out there.

Winnipeg also holds an IceBike event in early February https://www.icebiking.com/ and they get quite a few couriers out to that. I've gone to the event and watched, so again, I've seen several there.

The Manitoba Cycling Association has a sort of forum thing, and I got to know one of the couriers to some extent online, and met him in person a few times (at that bicycle shop mentioned above, and at the IceBike event).

There are national bicycle courier competitions and one of the female couriers in Winnipeg won it, or placed very well in it, and she came and talked to a group of female cyclists from the Velodonna's club in Winnipeg.

I just found out that the owner (Lindsay Gauld) of one of the other bicycle shops in Winnipeg, which I frequented now and then, decided he had enough of bicycle shop life, and has become a bicycle courier (although I guess he just recently had surgery so isn't working at the moment). Some of his comments are on the first page of the Manitoba Cycling Association site: https://www.cycling.mb.ca/

And, as I mentioned in that other thread, my ex was a car courier and the company he worked for had a bicycle courier division (as many car courier companies do). I was offered a job with them on several occasions, and I met some of the cycle couriers who worked for that company. But it isn't something I really want to do.


I would imagine that most cities have bicycle couriers. When I walked around downtown Winnipeg, they were everywhere!

michaelnel

You can't swing a dead chicken around in my neighborhood without hitting several messengers.

FarHorizon

A bike messenger would be as odd here as a compassionate conservative or a sensible liberal. Three-headed space aliens would be more likely.

budster

I answered no, but then I thought...

I've been to NYC many, many times and I've seen people zipping around on bikes. Messengers? Some of them probably were. Ditto for Boston, Philly....

And I delivered pizzas in Chapel Hill, NC via bicycle for a while. Did that make me a bike messenger of sorts?

Machka 

And ... if you watch movies, or TV shows, that show scenes in the business district of big cities, you'll often see someone in the background with a bicycle and a messenger bag and radio.

giantcfr1

Sh1tloads...
Check it out

jeff williams

I have 2 friends gainfully emplyed as bike messengers. I've seen others.

lala

I wouldn't, necessarily, call you a hick. You mustn't be very urban, tho.

Eggplant Jeff

Well, I think you have to be in a pretty dense urban area to get bike messengers. I've never seen any and I live in the suburbs, but I worked in McLean for four years. McLean is a big commercial area, but it's sprawling... So no bike messengers. I'm sure there are some in downtown DC, maybe Alexandria or Arlington...

STEEKER

seen in the flesh meaning naked ? then the answer would be no ,

edp773

If they do not exist, I must have been seeing things.There was two of them taliking five foot from my cab in Chicago last Monday. I asked the cabby how he would like to have that job. I saw at least five of them in my short rides from Union Station to the Hospital and back.

edp773

Edit: due to repeat post

edp773

[Edit: due to repeat post

Portis

You can say that again.

SteveFox

and again and again haha. ive never seen one...unless you count me...cause i go everywhere on my bike and have recently been doing a lot of running around for people...i can also be called a taxi service cause i drive my sister on my bike all over town. i guess it doenst count causse i dont get paid for it...who knows...

steve

jyossarian

I live in NYC. You can't swing a dead cat w/o hitting a bike messenger, pizzeria, Chinese restaurant, bagel store, newstand, coffee cart, and a taxi cab.

edp773

I see they posted. LOL. I recieved an error each time that said no post was made. You cannot believe everything you read.

Retro Grouch 

I doubt the president would make a very good bike messenger. He falls down too often.

BigGuy

Last summer while I was touring, I camped at a service station picnic area, and a guy cycled in and joined me. He had just competed in the World Cup for Bicycle Messengers in Edmonton. He (Ibon Lopez Lameiro) had come from Bilbao, Spain and was going to spend a month cycling the Canadian Rockies.

Artkansas 

I used to work with a fellow who claimed to have been a bicycle messenger at his last job. But I never actually saw him do it.