Bike Messengers in NYC

afrocentric

afrocentric

Member
I don't think this video has ever been posted, but if it has, sorry in advance.

Its summertime and everyone is aching for some snow right around this exact time, mid August is brutal. Like alot of people, i search youtube for entertaining videos from time to time, but this one was introduced to me by a friend. Enjoy

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I love that song go BSS. And I'm moving to Boston soon so I'm pretty psyched to ride around all break neck down town passing cars left and right.
 
Bike messengers are fucking badass. You should check this book called Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power, it's a great read.
 
i just coast sometimes. if i have no particular direction to go and are just riding and i know im not going to make it across the street without getting hit ill change my direction accordingly. im a wuss
 
Ballsy. they just go thru intersections and floods of pedestrians and don't hit anything. Amazing, truely amazing.
 
that guy at the end was on a fixie but it didn't seem like most of the other guys were. im pretty sure i saw them coasting.
 
I just whipped my specialized road bike to the gym and was whipping it through traffic downtown. It was so sick, I was literally moving faster then the cars
 
Only a few of them were using fixed gears and when you are as good as those guys you can just skid or fishtail(fixed gears) to a stop and most fixed gear riders don't need brakes you just slow you pedaling speed down with your legs. But it just took balls of steel to be able to ride like that.
 
bike messangers are sick. kinda a dying breed in DC though, not sure how they're doing in NYC. probably still have a bigger slice of the market. email and such as replaced alot of the utility of bike messangers, all the guys in my nearest bike shop used to be messengers and talk about it alot. they are awesome guys though and have great nicknames, like cheeto, my personal favorite haha

 
Oh in the video i noticed that only a couple had fixed gears. A lot didn't. But just from ones i've actually seen in the city i still have seen way more fixed gear than anything. Brakeless is bad ass.
 
Anyone remember this video? Almost takes out Russel Simmons at the beginning, then he catches some sweet air at 2:44. Robin Thicke is the man.
 
nope, about half of actual bike messengers have fixed gears. But that's just a rough estimate from alley cats I've been to.
 
Fixies are pretty much the standard here in London, I don't tink I've every seen a messenger on a bike with gears. Those guys are nuts, truely skilled guys.

Does anyone else think that this could easily be made into a game, delivering package in time, kinda like Crazy Taxi.
 
these videos are kinda dumb to me, i mean thats just kinda how you have to ride a fixed gear in the city, especially without brakes. youre a lot better off blowing lights confidently, so long as you keep an eye about yourself, than you are riding around timid and unsure about what youre gona do. thats how you clip rear view mirrors or get broadsided because you crept through a yellow light.
 
i could be wrong but it popped in my head when i was watching this that it is video from some sort of unorganized bike messenger race that is held in NYC

also, anyone remember about that one legged bike messenger? i remember reading an article about him like 10 years ago in some bike magazine.
 
See that's why I like the videos :D I sure as hell can't ride like that on any sort of bike. I could get high and watch that video all day. Super cool.
 
haha yeah it takes a while to get used to it but my philosophy is that youre better off riding as fast as cars than you are riding slower and having to worry about getting him from all angles.
 
For sure, just like sometimes it's better to take a particular line a little faster in skiing. I'm just not to that point in biking so it's really cool to me.
 
they must have some big ass calves. props thats dope. all the "hipsters" in my town try and do that shit, but our downtown is like 15 blocks.
 
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