How do you deliver a pizza on a bike. Subs I can see, Chinese I can see......pizza? I would think it would be destroyed after 20 blocks

What do you mean? As in local businesses will 'sponsor' messengers. I really know nothing about the scene today. I had a roommate in the 80's from Brooklyn who was a messenger but it seemed like a regular old job to him. My point is this; is it faux paux for messengers to ride around with adverts on them? The road racing team I race for is basically required to ride around advertising for our sponsors and we are greatfull to do it since we get stuff in return.

http://www.dutchbikefactory.com/imag...ibus2004_2.jpg
but insulated

That wold be nice for pizzas! I delivered pizza on Fri & Sat nights for 6 months or so, on a C-dale Caad 5.
I used those insulated bags just like the cars of course! Besides keeping the pies warm, if you tried to carry them w/out the bag the steam forced out the back of the box by your forward motion would burn you, & the pizza boxes would collapse/less stable w//out the insulated bag thing. $200 plus a night, but I had to work 7pm to 3-4am.

A C-dale Caad5 will transport up to 9 X-large pies, if you have uberbalancepatience, otherwise it should only carry 3-4 at most.. The brifters/bar combo makes a nice table, one hand on the drop with front brake one finger, the other on the side of the pile of pizza. Vision is obstructed from hell, you have to check 3 diff ways. The C-dale won't deliver that many pies at a good pace, but you can get back to the shop to pick more up very very quickly. Drinks are cans only, in the mess bag.

with just 1-2 pizzas, or a salad/pizza combo, very fast delivery.

in reference to advertising & messengers, this is already being explored by many. Someone asked if it was faux pas for a messenger to wear an ad, the answer is Yes.

But only if there is no compensation. Taste is subjective.

Ads on messengers is a good concept, (except where all ads are evil of course!) and I've been toying with the idea (more than toying) as part of planned stop-gap against the current decline, until such time as the benefits of green delivery and other new markets are realized.

It's not my idea of course, the first I heard of it was some folk in Copenhagen, or Amsterdam many years ago. It's great from a visibility aspect. Most people when they hear about it think that since the messenger is riding around in heavy traffic all day that the people in the cars and on the sidewalks will see the ad and viola! you've reached a great many people! Not true. Drivers should be looking at the damn road IMO, and sidewalk folk could maybe pick up a very emblematic ad, or see it when the rider is stopped at an intersection, but mostly it would go by too quickly(although that too is kind of got cool appeal)

Most of your visibility is in elevators, escalators, lobbies, mailrooms, conference rooms, cube farms, hallways, bathrooms, waiting in line at the coffee joint, sitting around drinking the coffee, standing by waiting for calls on a street corner, you get it, pretty much freaking everywhere. People look at messengers, they can't help it, it's an incredibly small population, and different works in the ad world.

Some may see it as a sell out, but nobody is forcing them to wear an ad they don't like or agree with. IMO one should be paid for selling out, I'd rather have an ad I choose to have on my back that is there earning me $$ than branded crap that is there because the techwear I want is covered in doofus.

No, I am not against advertising per se - just as long the individual messengers get paid for the ads that´s fine. What I meant in my original post was that a day will come soon when a company (probably Red Bull or Puma, methinks :D ) will pay messenger-lookalikes to "run empty" around town centres just to keep their logos visible and score cred points for the brand.

i don't think it's a matter of acting like you're the beeskness as much as it is sharing in a community / tight knit circle / commonality in all of your lives? lol

What the?

/moves back to Gainesville

Oh, that would be weird.

that would be perfect

i look really cool but i cant ride for 8 hours

where do i apply to become one of these faux messengers
?

Pizza? How are you doing it?

ever seen those movies where a lonely lady orders a pizza and once the pizza boy gets there one thing leads to another?

can you guess who the little pizza boy is in this story
?

thats right! nekura!

Ottawa messengers deliver my packages on time with frozen beards.

I never said I deliver Pizza, that was someone else up top. I deliver subs and drinks.

p.s. Patrick Dempsey is the man.
http://i.tvspielfilm.de/iimages/2/0/...-359x240-e.jpg

and weed.

I totally believe you though, Jimmy John's jumps between 2-4am. My roomate has been known to have delivered and we live 3 blocks away. Personally, I think there's too much mayo.

LOL! We had a corporate guy in yesterday and he was telling us our standard amt of mayo wasn't enough.

I make most of the money in the AM thru lunch. Late night deliveries aren't as good and are sketchy b/c most of the drivers are all drunk.

I spent the night in the hospital because of a bad sub from jimmy john's =( stay away!

Hmmm, are we ahead of the wave or what? We've had ads on messies for years.
The biggest messie service here has standard bags (bright orange ortlieb backpacks), and a huge ad covers the whole bag. Like so.
$1000-1500/week to rent the space on the back of 100 messies.

I am working as a bike messenger in NY since 1992.

It is a hard job with little or no security/benefits.

Love it so much, hard to explain!

Was very punk rock and anti corporate for many years and organized alot of fun events and fundraisers, using only the sweat and resources of the immediate crew.

Got so good at doing that stuff that I was getting approached continually by big companies that wanted to be part of what we are doing!?

A long time dream of myself and some others was a 501c3 nonprofit organization to benefit the NY Messenger Community.

The amount of legal hurdles/$$ kept us from attaining this goal for some time.

In 2003 Body Glove approached us to do a branded messenger event in Manhattan. Long story short we produced the event for them and they produced the legal team to help us secure our nonprofit!

http://nybmf.org/

I don't think that will happen. You see, if Red Bull wanted to have a guy ride around with a red bull T-shirt on, they would just start selling T-shirts, and some guy would do it without being paid. Happens all the time; I'm providing free advertising for Nike right now at a coffeshop.

We have the same concept in Copenhagen.. (but who was first?) Same bags and size of ad..We run an ad now for Max Havelaar/Fair trade -thats cool, but we have also had crap ones.. But I can choose not to go to work and not get paid if I dont like it.. :-)

There is always danger for those who are afraid.

Percentage wise, how many people remain messengers very long? If accurate data was kept, I venture to guess less than 10% of those who start remain messengers longer than, say, 4 years.

Unionizing is the only answer to getting a decent wage, and making the job more appealing. Other wise, it's just a job to have held for someone's perception of "cool". There's a niche that bike messengers fill, and it could be a bigger niche, a better niche, and they could get recognition for what they do. There is room for growth, with gas prices only increasing, a demand for "greener" things and people's disastifaction with the status quo. But, with out unity, nothing prevails. Even for the free spirited bike riders.

Why would that be dependent on a job? I have much more in common with my friends as opposed to people who happen to have the same job as I do.

25-30 years ago (prefax) my father made more money/week as a messenger than most messengers do today. and this is just straight checks- not adjusted for inflation or anyting.


and the "messenger scene" is draggin everybody down

the "messenger scene" doesnt have anything to do with actual messenger work as far as pay goes, and rarely have I seen any posengers last very long in the job either

decent messenger these days can easily knock down $1000 per week, even more if your indie and have your act together, but most are lucky to make $100 per day, that is one of the attractions of the job, there's very little BS or politics---------you work hard, you get paid accordingly, its about as close to darwinian capitalism as it gets

I find the messenger scene kinda funny myself, I think its hysterical that people actually work at it to both look like and act like messengers LOL. Very similar to the OCP thing on the roadie forum.

This dude is the man really. If he is kicking it on that bike, he is a beast.

there is a difference between the scene and the carfree or event he bike mechanics and bike people I am a bike advocate in my city as well as a mechanic and have done and will do messenger work ocassionally

its funny when I see kids out riding around all agressive and crazy on a shiny brakeless fixie with a bag on their back yet at all of the races and polo games only a hand full of those same people show up and play or race

generally around here we respect people who ride and no how to ride and we generally give everyone on two wheels a chance hell atleast they are out of te suvs

how much would a starting messenger expect to make? i'm thinking in portland specifically, so pedex feel free to field this one if you want.

different things come along with different jobs i guess.