Bike messengers take to track racing

Strayhorn wrote:
"We're taking urban street biking to the track to represent New York and
show we have the fastest messengers," said Mr. Bobe, who finished first
among all track bikers participating in last month's North American
Cycle Courier Championships in Portland, Ore.

According to Mr. Bobe, working as a city messenger is the best training
for track races, where bikers ride in tight packs.

"Messengers have better instincts and reflexes and a lot sharper
peripheral vision," he said. "If you're not conscious and in the moment
at all times, you can die on someone's car door. That's what separates
us from regular racers. We have a different inner core and strength
because our messenger work is our training.

"We ride wearing a 20-pound lock and a 40-pound bag," he added. "When
you finally get to the track and take all that off, you feel explosive,
like you have wings or you just took a shot of Red Bull or something."

I got an email from this morning that puts
that "messenger superiority" bull**** plainly into the light of day. It
seems messengers as a group tend to be low-functioning in regard to
certain bike basics; shortcomings mentioned were "riding in a straight
line", and "not causing and/or staying out of crashes". Well, what
could you expect from a population that a)flunks the "riding in traffic
with no brakes" IQ test, and b)is proud of it?

I snipped the part about Bobe (allegedly) having suffered five
concussions "at work", while having a wife and two kids he's
supporting, and still choosing not to wear a helmet. Or put brakes on
his bike.

D-u-u-h... --TP

On 11 Jun 2005 14:42:43 -0700, wrote:



Strayhorn wrote:
"We're taking urban street biking to the track to represent New York and
show we have the fastest messengers," said Mr. Bobe, who finished first
among all track bikers participating in last month's North American
Cycle Courier Championships in Portland, Ore.

According to Mr. Bobe, working as a city messenger is the best training
for track races, where bikers ride in tight packs.

"Messengers have better instincts and reflexes and a lot sharper
peripheral vision," he said. "If you're not conscious and in the moment
at all times, you can die on someone's car door. That's what separates
us from regular racers. We have a different inner core and strength
because our messenger work is our training.

"We ride wearing a 20-pound lock and a 40-pound bag," he added. "When
you finally get to the track and take all that off, you feel explosive,
like you have wings or you just took a shot of Red Bull or something."

I got an email from this morning that puts
that "messenger superiority" bull**** plainly into the light of day. It
seems messengers as a group tend to be low-functioning in regard to
certain bike basics; shortcomings mentioned were "riding in a straight
line", and "not causing and/or staying out of crashes". Well, what
could you expect from a population that a)flunks the "riding in traffic
with no brakes" IQ test, and b)is proud of it?

I snipped the part about Bobe (allegedly) having suffered five
concussions "at work", while having a wife and two kids he's
supporting, and still choosing not to wear a helmet. Or put brakes on
his bike.

D-u-u-h... --TP

Dear Tom,

The bright side is that they're only riding bicycles in
traffic with no front brakes--imagine the carnage if they
started driving taxis or delivery trucks with the same
theories!

Carl Fogel

Per :
Well, what
could you expect from a population that a)flunks the "riding in traffic
with no brakes" IQ test, and b)is proud of it?

OTOH, the ones that show up for a given event are still alive. Maybe there's a
Darwinian component there...
--
PeteCresswell

wrote:

Dear Tom,

Hi Carl,

The bright side is that they're only riding bicycles in
traffic with no front brakes--imagine the carnage if they
started driving taxis or delivery trucks with the same
theories!

The very, very dark side is that they're "coming to a velodrome near
you". The email I mentioned said that a "messenger" was involved in, if
not at the bottom of, every major pileup at a certain facility "for the
last two years" (wording might have been slightly different).

The Red Badge of Stupidity.

(Just curious)were you ever a Cat IV, or V? Not a Life Requirement g
but a possible avenue to learning how to be a better bike handler and
*smarter* rider. "You have to finish the race to get a prize". Golden.

I've had a different outlook on these guys ever since one of them
sneeringly told me that a "messenger" could stop faster by skidding his
rear wheel than I could "with my brakes". I don't have any patience
with this "we're a superior life form" mentality. A sad joke. Put two
able, "equal" riders on bikes, one with brakes and gears, the other
without, and see who gets their package delivered *faster*. D-u-u-h...
--TP

wrote:

The email I mentioned said that a "messenger" was involved in, if
not at the bottom of, every major pileup at a certain facility "for the
last two years" (wording might have been slightly different).

Wow, which facility was that?


(Just curious)were you ever a Cat IV, or V? Not a Life Requirement g
but a possible avenue to learning how to be a better bike handler and
*smarter* rider. "You have to finish the race to get a prize". Golden.

The typical messenger is of course already a much better
"bike handler" than the typical Cat IV or V. Pack skills,
riding in close proximity to other *riders* as opposed
to cars and pedestrians, and racing dynamics are another
thing entirely. Maybe that's why most of the messengers
who make it to the top ranks tend to gravitate to
mountain bike racing (i.e. Fassbinder, Kraft, Streb),
although there are some obvious counterexamples of
successful track racers from the messenger world, Cheetah
being the most well-known. Wasn't Mike McCarthy a
messenger as well?

Also it should be noted that if a full-time messenger is
going out on the weekends and racing well, that is
remarkable. Courier work kills your legs for racing.


I've had a different outlook on these guys ever since one of them
sneeringly told me that a "messenger" could stop faster by skidding his
rear wheel than I could "with my brakes". I don't have any patience
with this "we're a superior life form" mentality. A sad joke. Put two
able, "equal" riders on bikes, one with brakes and gears, the other
without, and see who gets their package delivered *faster*. D-u-u-h...
--TP

"These guys..." Sounds like you have an axe to grind.

BTW, if there's a significant amount of snow or ice on the
streets, the fixed gear/no brakes bike will be faster
than the geared/brakes bike.

Robert

wrote:
wrote:

The email I mentioned said that a "messenger" was involved in, if
not at the bottom of, every major pileup at a certain facility "for the
last two years" (wording might have been slightly different).

Wow, which facility was that?

Reported to be Kissena.

The typical messenger is of course already a much better
"bike handler" than the typical Cat IV or V.

That depends on how you define. Note, "riding in a straight line" is
usually one of the marks of being able to handle a bike. As opposed to
wobbling...

Pack skills,
riding in close proximity to other *riders* as opposed
to cars and pedestrians, and racing dynamics are another
thing entirely. Maybe that's why most of the messengers
who make it to the top ranks tend to gravitate to
mountain bike racing (snip)

Ho ho ho. What's different about riders v. any other "part of the
playing field"? Part of the letter in the OP I believe said something
about running over a ped's foot. Common occurence, I take it? "Shaving"
peds part of the Messenger Ethos by any chance?

although there are some obvious counterexamples of
successful track racers from the messenger world, Cheetah
being the most well-known. Wasn't Mike McCarthy a
messenger as well?

Nelson Vails? Sooooo (19)80's! And a typical messenger? I think not. I
wouldn't pretend to know of more recent examples. Feel free if you can
find some.

Also it should be noted that if a full-time messenger is
going out on the weekends and racing well, that is
remarkable. Courier work kills your legs for racing.

I thought taking off the sixty pounds of lock/bag made you feel like
you'd just taken a shot of Red Bull or "something"...

"These guys..." Sounds like you have an axe to grind.

Yeah, the "superiority" of people who ride in traffic with no brakes.
Put plainly, they do it for the fear rush; the rest is justification
for taking undue risk.

BTW, if there's a significant amount of snow or ice on the
streets, the fixed gear/no brakes bike will be faster
than the geared/brakes bike.

Depends on which gear the geared bike freezes in g. You're talking to
someone with a good bunch of experience riding in the Great Frozen
North. I used fixed a lot because of the freezing problem with geared
(deraileur style) bikes, and also to save money on drivetrain parts
(salt/cinders). Any time there's traction, which is often ("usually")
on hardpack snow and some icy surfaces, rim brakes work, even if not as
well as when warm/dry. I find modulating the stopping power of caliper
brakes, with the smaller muscles of my hands, to be a lot more accurate
than using the big muscles of my legs stomping backwards on the pedals.
And if the ice is polished enough that somehow a caliper brake puts you
down, what pray tell is the magical property of backpedaling that keeps
you up?

So you agree that the bike with gears and brakes would beat the pista
bike across town except on ice or in deep snow? Come on... get real,
stop making excuses.

I started racing in '80, a year or so before the Tri Fred invasion
began. Parallel to the messenger "we're better" attitudes, also a
shared terrific lack of knowing wtf they were doing in a race pack. And
"cornerning skills"? Piles of bodies on industrial park crit courses...
I admit that I completely can't understand taking up a new sport and
defiantly refusing to learn from those who are already good at it. Duh.
--TP

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per :
Well, what
could you expect from a population that a)flunks the "riding in traffic
with no brakes" IQ test, and b)is proud of it?

OTOH, the ones that show up for a given event are still alive. Maybe there's a
Darwinian component there...
--
PeteCresswell

Not all messengers are crazy idiots, and all crazy idiots are not
messengers. Like all groups of people there is a range of what is to be
found. I recall there being more or less the following, any of whom
might be on a fixed:

1. Transients one step away from being homeless.
2. Semi-normal people who just needed a job.
3. Lifestyle type crazies (think tatooed cultural drop-out bohemian
thing).
4. Bike racers wanting "on the job training" who are a little too rough
around the edges to be a spinning instructor.

While messengers do get a chance to develop their "situational
awareness" it still is a matter of applying it to a new skill. Just as
super fit tri-geeks need to learn to ride in a group, messengers need
to tone down the kill-or-be-killed attitude. Success maybe comes to
those who can make the transition.

But no denying that riding around on a fixed all day every day is good
training for racing.

And whoever said they can stop a fixed faster than a bike with brakes
is full of ****. No way. One of the whole "things" about using a fixed
was that it was such a pain in the ass to stop, you'd learn to go
around. Hence faster. That was the theory at least. The subtle speed
changes possible with a fixed is what I really think makes them so well
suited to riding in traffic in a place like NYC. You can really get
into the flow of traffic in a way that is hard to do with a
freewheel/brakes bike. But it is wise to have at least a front brake
for "emergencies."

No denying the "rush" factor, though. Charging down Broadway all-out
for 200 blocks from the George Washington Bridge to the Brooklyn Bridge
on a super responsive track bike in heavy traffic will definitely get
the endorphins and adrenaline flowing.

Joseph

wrote in message
oups.com...


(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per :
Well, what
could you expect from a population that a)flunks the "riding
in traffic
with no brakes" IQ test, and b)is proud of it?

OTOH, the ones that show up for a given event are still
alive. Maybe there's a
Darwinian component there...
--
PeteCresswell

Not all messengers are crazy idiots, and all crazy idiots are
not
messengers. Like all groups of people there is a range of what
is to be
found. I recall there being more or less the following, any of
whom
might be on a fixed:

1. Transients one step away from being homeless.
2. Semi-normal people who just needed a job.
3. Lifestyle type crazies (think tatooed cultural drop-out
bohemian
thing).
4. Bike racers wanting "on the job training" who are a little
too rough
around the edges to be a spinning instructor.

While messengers do get a chance to develop their "situational
awareness" it still is a matter of applying it to a new skill.
Just as
super fit tri-geeks need to learn to ride in a group,
messengers need
to tone down the kill-or-be-killed attitude. Success maybe
comes to
those who can make the transition.

But no denying that riding around on a fixed all day every day
is good
training for racing.

I'm not so sure about this last point. I rode on a team
populated by messengers, and it seems to me that the good ones
got better after they quit. Many complained that sprinting a few
blocks and then going up an elevator was not very good training.
A lot of those guys spend more time walking around buildings than
they do on their bikes -- especially if their dispatchers have
their deliveries mapped out carefully. -- Jay Beattie.

Jay Beattie wrote:

I'm not so sure about this last point. I rode on a team
populated by messengers, and it seems to me that the good ones
got better after they quit.

Definitely.

Many complained that sprinting a few
blocks and then going up an elevator was not very good training.
A lot of those guys spend more time walking around buildings than
they do on their bikes -- especially if their dispatchers have
their deliveries mapped out carefully. -- Jay Beattie.

Messengers get worked slightly differently from city to
city and from company to company within each city,
depending on how much area the company wants their bikes
to cover. North American average is probably about three
vertical elevator miles each day in addition to the
several miles walked and about 45 miles on the bike. Actual time on the
bike is usually about 5 hours
per shift.

IMO, the typical grind of repeatedly hauling away from
slow speed in too large gears, hour after hour, day after
day, kind of kills the legs for anything but that. It does
develop good all-day endurance and handling skill over
time.

If you want to use a messenger job to train for racing,
you have to make some special arrangements, like this
guy, who, I might add, is totally living the life. He
apparently rides half days and does only long-distance
deliveries (excerpted from "A Master of City Traffic and
Mountain Trails," Baltimore Sun, August 8 2004):

"... He doesn't make much money on or off the job, but he's
bicycle-rich.
There are five parked in his apartment, all freebies from Trek. The
carbon-fiber racers are worth about $4,000 apiece, but Duvall's
workhorse model is nothing special.

He hammers around town on an aluminum-framed Trek 8000 mountain bike
equipped with plastic fenders and rear rack. Reliable transportation.
The only custom touch is an extra-large chain ring that has 56 teeth as
opposed to the standard 53.

"I've never heard of anybody riding close to that size of chain ring,"
says bike mechanic Posner. "He's a diesel. Once he gets up to speed,
good luck catching up to him."

Lindsay Duvall once rode up Mount Rainier in Washington state with his
brother. He couldn't keep pace. David burned 10 uphill miles in 38
minutes, at an elevation of 6,800 feet. Lindsay doesn't know anyone who
has broken 40 minutes on that same ride.

Roger Bird, who spent nine years on the professional mountain-biking
circuit before joining Trek, says David Duvall could have turned pro
long ago. But he never had that fire. He's content carrying envelopes
and boxes across a different kind of finish line on what he calls
"paid" training runs.

Technically speaking, he's "about as unscientific as they get," admits
Duvall.

He doesn't keep a training log. He doesn't wear a heart-rate monitor or
follow any particular diet. What he does do is cross-train (rowing
machine, a side order of jogging) and churn out grueling half-day
shifts at least four days a week, averaging about 20 mph while making
from three to 15 deliveries. He has covered as much as 63 miles in five
hours.

For the record, the worst traffic light is at the intersection of
Northern Parkway and Falls Road. The most beautiful hills are found in
White Hall, the dark side of the moon in his business. None of Duvall's
peers ventures that far afield. For good reason. Bike messengers pocket
60 percent of their delivery fees. There's more money to be made doing
quick, downtown sprints. Unfortunately, Duvall can't abide the
stop-and-go hassles.

"I like to ride my bike," he says simply. "I don't like to stand in
elevators." ..."

wrote:
wrote:
wrote:

The email I mentioned said that a "messenger" was involved in, if
not at the bottom of, every major pileup at a certain facility "for the
last two years" (wording might have been slightly different).

Wow, which facility was that?

Reported to be Kissena.

Dear dumbasses, the best racer to come out of Kissena
in who knows how long is a bike messenger named
Jared Bunde. He went from Cat V to Cat I in the blink
of an eye and is now competing with the top pros.
I guess nobody noticed that the guy who was winning
every g-damn thing at the velodrome was a bike messenger
because he didn't have a bone in his nose or some ****.

The typical messenger is of course already a much better
"bike handler" than the typical Cat IV or V.

That depends on how you define. Note, "riding in a straight line" is
usually one of the marks of being able to handle a bike. As opposed to
wobbling...

Look, many, if not most messengers are what one would
call "rookies." They're often kids who have very little
experience riding bikes, much less track bikes. Their primary concern
is looking cool to their peers. They've
never raced, much less on the velodrome. If you invite
the "messengers as a group" to race at your track as some
kind of promotion, then a lot of rookies are going to
show up and give it a shot. It's a recipe for certain
carnage. Messenger rookies are like the guys
on the original Star Trek with the red shirts--those
guys never made it to the commercial break. It's no
real exagerration to say that most rookies get
smacked by cars or get into some other dealbreaker
incident within the first few months on the job and they
are never seen or heard from again in the messenger world.

I wouldn't want to line up with 'em. Hell no. OTOH, I'd
much rather line up next to messengers with a few years
on the job than Cat IVs, any day. God man, not even
close.

Pack skills,
riding in close proximity to other *riders* as opposed
to cars and pedestrians, and racing dynamics are another
thing entirely. Maybe that's why most of the messengers
who make it to the top ranks tend to gravitate to
mountain bike racing (snip)

Ho ho ho. What's different about riders v. any other "part of the
playing field"?

Who are you quoting? Anyway, packs of rider, individual
riders, don't behave anything like the vehicles and
drivers, pedestrians, etc. the likely and potential
movements of which the messengers are so keyed into.
And they're not going to understand race tactics unless
they understand race tactics.

Part of the letter in the OP I believe said something
about running over a ped's foot. Common occurence, I take it? "Shaving"
peds part of the Messenger Ethos by any chance?

I wasn't aware there was a "Messenger Ethos." Nobody
sent ME a copy.

Nelson Vails? Sooooo (19)80's! And a typical messenger? I think not.

Just a helluva lot faster is all.

Also it should be noted that if a full-time messenger is
going out on the weekends and racing well, that is
remarkable. Courier work kills your legs for racing.

I thought taking off the sixty pounds of lock/bag made you feel like
you'd just taken a shot of Red Bull or "something"...

Yeah, for like 30 seconds, and then you realize that your
legs are a little dead after a hundred thousand miles
of starting and stopping.

"These guys..." Sounds like you have an axe to grind.

Yeah, the "superiority" of people who ride in traffic with no brakes.
Put plainly, they do it for the fear rush; the rest is justification
for taking undue risk.

There a few main reasons why SOME messengers
go no brakes (relatively few do anymore),
and seeking "the fear rush" is not one I'm familiar
with. Mostly it's the aforementioned rookies trying to
look cool to their peers, or get a rise out of haters
like yourself (and are amazingly successful at one but
not the other). If a vet messenger is riding a track
bike, spare him/her the monday morning weekend warrior
judgment. They're just as safe on that bike as
on a geared bike with brakes, and fundamentally as safe
as they would be with a front brake. These are the most
conservative riders out there. And if you can't tell
a rookie from a vet just by watching them ride for a
few seconds, then I don't know what.

I find modulating the stopping power of caliper
brakes, with the smaller muscles of my hands, to be a lot more accurate
than using the big muscles of my legs stomping backwards on the pedals.

No way, there is no substitute for a fixed gear for
precise, instantaneous micro-adjustments of speed.
That's where a track bike has an advantage over a road
bike in traffic. Overall, I prefer freewheels to fixed
gears, but not everyone shares that preference.

And if the ice is polished enough that somehow a caliper brake puts you
down, what pray tell is the magical property of backpedaling that keeps
you up?

The ability to brake from the most stable position, and
apply instantaneous, unhurried, and infinitely subtle
braking force without any sort of reaching, indeed without
any upper body movement whatsoever.

So you agree that the bike with gears and brakes would beat the pista
bike across town except on ice or in deep snow? Come on... get real,
stop making excuses.

I prefer road bikes. I've only ridden about 30K miles
total on track bikes with no brakes. But I don't think
you understand where crosstown speed comes from. Not
from the legs or the bike. It comes from the eyes and
the head. It comes from knowing the lights, using the
whole city surface, choosing the best route, and looking
and thinking ahead to apply constant micro-adjustments
in speed and postion. That said, a rider with a freewheel
and brakes will be able to carry more speed toward
blind intersections, and down hills. The more clogged
the streets are, the less useful a brake becomes.

Robert