By Brean
I started messing in the early 90′s, a little after the big bubble. But I knew a few messengers in the 80′s and there was a lot of talk at the time about how much money these guys made. The typical figure cited was $60k for a really good messer, including the under-the-table part, which everyone said was most of the take. The only other thing i remember about messengers back then was that everyone said Nelson Vails needed specially tailored pants (you needed TIGHT pants back then) to accommodate his definitely non-steroid induced thigh-dom.
April 29th, 2010 at 8:23 am
I like how the whole “dare-devil” approach and hyperbolic explanation of what defines a bike messenger has not changed in the nyt formula of reporting.
I also like how there’s always been someone to play that angle off of.
I certainly trust that the full fledged risk taking to craftiness ratio was probably a bit different from what it is now.
That aside, man I’m digging dude’s style on his ferry commute and I might just try the huge chunk of grip tape at the track this summer because Nelson did it.