I started this career as a Professional Urban Cyclist in beautiful Chicago, Illinois, wayyyy back in the first portion of 2005, either February or March. (My PBR-addled brain has a tough time with dates sometimes. ) My reasoning for wanting to work on my bike was easy - i could be my own "boss". Theoretically, the harder i work, the more $ that means, and usually that is the case. I figured i was beating the curve by starting before all the fair-weather students out for summer break. Every April (or so), in EVERY city with a messenger industry, there is an influx of fresh-outta-school, got-a-new brakeless fixie kids. I also beat the winter that year...i got in while it was getting out.
Anyway, rookies on the job tend to learn the hard way.
My first gig was with Standard Courier. They are one of the more monolithic companies to work for, caring less about the employees and more about the bottom line. I was naive. I didn't understand what it meant to be an Independant Contractor (gross). I didn't realize that it wasn't the norm to "rent"your two-way radio from the company you work for, often paying way too much $ weekly for only having two-way capability an NO dial-out landline service. I didn't realize the evil extolls of NICA "insurance" at the time, of which i paid $100/month for...which in many cases (not mine, thankfully) turned out to be useless.
(Check out this link to a letter from a bike messenger to the NICA powers-that-be. )
Standard was fine, a good way to learn the ropes of the job, didn't make much $ , but who REALLY does this job to be in it for the money, anyways? I started riding some janky HYbrid bike. I looked really goofy on it, but it got me to wher i needed to be. Then i went to Burning Man and was gifted a day-glo green spray-painted Peugeot roadie...woo, i got fast. I worked at Standard for roughly one year, before moving on to....
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