AppStateEvan

Im thinking about possibly trying to get a job as a messnger this summer. It would be most likely in the Charlotte area. Anyone ever been one? How did you get into it etc? Just looking for any and all info.

-Thanks

same time

Hi, try in the Singlespeed/Fixed Gear forum (even if you don't ride that kind of bike). Lots of em over there. Good luck, stay safe.

.:Jimbo:.

why wait till summer, its a year round thing. I just started, pretty tough stuff but can be alot of fun, as long as you know what your doing, ie good bike skills, good sense of direction, and a good understanding of how the system works. Just look in yellow pages under messenger, there should be some companies listed, and some may be hiring. Go luck, and have fun, so don't bother doing if if you don't absolutely love it, cause this isn't a job for a huge paycheck.

huhenio

you people are nuts! I will never do that for a living ... unless It would be the McD's flipping rat meat or messenger.

mrkott3r

hey, us young types dont have much option. I would rather be a messenger than a burger b*tch, or working at a supermarket/kmart/walmart etc At least when your a messenger your outside enjoying the world, be it cold or sunny.

Just a bummer they dont have messengers in my city in Aus

jyossarian

Jimbo, still getting the Langster or are you getting the IRO instead?

Easy Rider

Sounds like an opportunity...why not start your own bike courier business?

.:Jimbo:.

I Have 300 bucks at a bike shop that was being used to hold a langster for me, but ill test ride the iro at trackstar since they have em in. If i really like the iro and i do end up getting the iro ill just leave the 300 bucks at the shop and put it towards a road bike later on in the year.

.:Jimbo:.

btw, i though i read u were a messenger too, did i read that right jyossarian?

jyossarian

Yup, for a summer back in the 80's. I sweated a lot, rode a too heavy bike, made more money than I could've made at a minimum wage job and didn't wear a helmet the whole time and had a great time when I wasn't in a building.

buzzman

It's easier to get the job this time of year, too. In the summer everybody wants to do it. But don't do what I did. I started the job because the bike shop I was working for laid everybody off in January and I ended up working as a messenger for 3 brutal months of a Boston winter and then started back in the bike shop at the end of March just as the snow was melting. I never got to do the job when the temperature was above 45F. It was still a blast though.

huhenio

so we agree

.:Jimbo:.

So, do you have an great stories you'd like to share?

jyossarian

LOL. Well, my first day on my first run uptown, I was cruising up 6th Ave. and came on an accident scene. At the scene were the cops who were talking to a cab driver who was screaming, "I didn't do it! It's all his fault! He hit me!" and pointing at the guy on the ground. EMS was also there tending to the guy on the ground who, you guessed it, was a messenger. His bike was mangled and off to the side. The front wheel was taco'd, etc. From what I could tell, the cab right hooked the messenger who flew over the hood and landed on the street. Not the kind of thing you want to see on your first day.

How 'bout you? Any sweet looking receptionists giving you the eye?

.:Jimbo:.

oh, they're giving me then just the eye...im taking numbers too!

jyossarian

Yeah, something like 1 receptionist in a 1000 likes there boys sweaty and funky. You're bound to meet one sooner or later.

AppStateEvan

Well im in College so the summer is the only chance I have really. Thanks for the info guys. I would be doing stuff for a few law firms. Hopefully it works out, if not can always work back home at an LBS.

oilfreeandhappy

Wasn't there a recent movie about bike messengers?

Saintly Loser

My brother worked as a messenger in New York some years ago (mid or late eighties, if I remember right). He told me the story of one receptionist who was so unspeakably b*tchy to all the messengers that one day, a messenger who'd had enough of her just, ahh, whipped it out, urinated on her desk, and left.