Moving Target

Eindhoven rocks?
24 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

I guess we are about to find out. Selim and I will be out there from tomorrow, and along with Nhatt, we hope to be able to bring the 2008 European Cycle Messenger Championships to your living room (or a computer screen, whichever is more convenient) via the fabulous interweb.

I guess the first big question that we will be able to bring you the answer to is:

will the Rollapaluza van make it in time for the polo tournament on Friday? A nation of messengers is not holding its breath.

And if you are actually attending the event, don’t forget to come and say hi at the Moving Target checkpoint. You never know, you might even get a cup of jolly old British tea for your pains.

An American in Paris
22 July 2008 by Ms Nhatt Attack

a report on the ECMC pre-event in Paris. Pics by Selimski

I’m not sure if anyone is interested in what happened in Paris, but at least it’s something about cycling in France that doesn’t have to do with really really boring drugs. I hear that shit won’t even make you hallucinate.

We got into Gare du Nord on Friday afternoon Just in time to put our bikes back together and ride to the registration point for the Panam Experience. When you’re a courier, you think that there are some things that will just come naturally to you, you know, like the things that you bitch about telephonists at your company not doing, like getting a contact name/ ref number/ proper address, or things that rookies do, I.E. not bringing a map with them on their first day. So, Neither Selimski or I had thought to bring along the organizers phone number, or to print out a map to get us to the registration point where they would be giving out free maps. I did write down the address, and while I guarded the bikes from the junky famlies that live outside the station (complete with dogs, mattresses, small children and the french equivalent of white lightning), S found a bookshop and tried to discreetly draw a map of Paris before he could be thrown out for being a cheap skate. Classic entry to an international courier event.

Absolutely nothing to with messengering...
21 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

London's Calling 08 - register now!
18 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

Open for business over here.

Rollapaluza XI 8th August - Kingspin
15 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

This will be the first competition outing of Rollapaluza’s four-up rig and for the first time ever in Rollapaluza history there will be tag team (madison) ) racing as well as the usual indvidual all-comers event. It’s going to be a great night for spectators and competitors!

£2000 prize list
Thanks to sponsors Swrve clothing, Selle San Marco (Madison) and Condor Cycles, this event will have the richest prize list in modern-day roller racing history – prizes with a total value of over £2000 up for grabs.

Underground stewarded bike parking
A fenced – off section of the adjacent underground car park which will be manned throughout the event.

To see more about messenger roller racing, click the contents tab of this site, and go to ‘Rollapaluza’.

What would Aunty Nasty say?
13 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

Some guy who claims to be an exenger – in Manchester, of all places, has a blog – actually let’s call it a flog, whose principle purpose appears to be selling a load of old crap to unsuspecting hipsters. It’s called Cantgoslo.

Actually, that Flanders frame is pretty nice.

Heroine of the month
12 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

Nice work by Clefty over at LFGSS.

The revolutions will not be televised
12 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

The summer rush is here. The rush of TV people trying to come up with a new idea for whatever reality strand is hot right now in the commissioning cycle. What’s the new old idea? Bicycle messengers. For some thoughts on this see this article from a couple of years ago.

Moving Target polo team at Shoreditch Invitational
11 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

Sneaking in under the wire by means of dirty tricks, bribery and sleight-of-hand, the Moving Target polo team has obtained entry to the Shoreditch Invitational Polo Tournament. With the kind of up-and-at-‘em, get-up-and-go attitude displayed by the two star players Janky and Jon here, the bicycle couriers of London are entitled to expect great things, especially when allied with Carcrusher Ryan, the messenger secret weapon.

Go MT, go! But wait, what’s this? A team of exengers and almost exengers called Pedalphiles, which includes the legendary Zack Speedfast? And the editor of this useless ‘zine himself riding for Rollapaluza? American Mike, riding for the current London bike polo champions, Zombie RMY? Lots of messenger interest…

99 Goldsprints video
9 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

As I mentioned here, the revival of roller racing as a spectacle in London was inspired by a trip to the 1999 Cycle Messenger World Championships in Zurich. It was there that Greg Tipper saw the Goldsprints “Home-Trainer Race”. The industrious and inventive guys at Rollapaluza have obtained a video of that race. Check it out on their video page here. Worth a look for the footage of London’s own Cadence Queen Crissi going up against the Teutonic Titaness Yvonne Kraft, and a very, very young looking Felipe ‘King of New York’.

Faster Pussycat Kill Kill - results and report from Chandra
9 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

Last chance to register for Shoreditch Invitational Polo Tournament
8 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

Despite some scepticism from some quarters, notably bikesnob and Jack Thurston of the Bike Show, bicycle polo is growing in popularity in London. There are now regular games 4 or 5 times a week (making a polo widow of Roxy!), and Sunday afternoons at the Brick Lane court (aka the Shacklewell Street playground), are very popular with many right-thinking cycling folk, with messengers amongst the regular players.

The informal nature of most polo games, with teams being formed at random, and playing together for one game only, would seem to militate against tournament play, but nevertheless teams are being formed, with certain players, notably Little Jon (aka Eggpie) being desired by more than one team. And not just because he looks fantastic in knee-high boots and a wig. So what is causing this fuss in London polo-land? The Shoreditch Invitational Polo Tournament, being held 17th August as part of the Shoreditch Festival, of which this useless ‘zine is a sponsor.

I believe that there is still time to register a team if you are really, really quick. More details on the London bike polo blog. Brooks are giving all the players a free saddle, and entry is free, so well worth the effort, we think.

Faster Pussycat Kill Kill - a hit
7 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

As we know now, there is nothing that the boys of the London messenger scene like better than dressing up as women. Saturday was just such an opportunity. There were at least as many female impersonators as there were female competitors, preening and pouting. 21 heroines entered the event, and the popular winner was Papillon.

House of Pistard took the preening much further than anyone else, and got a bikini line wax. Yes, much pouting after each strip lifted more and more of the westcoast muff.

Support your local courier heroes - buy a LCEF t-shirt
5 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

A messenger in distress? Doored, knocked off, squeezed out, run over? Can’t work? The London Courier Emergency Fund will ride to the rescue! Support the heroes and heroines at the Fund by buying a t-shirt.

Thanks to the legendary and mysterious Zack Speedfast for the photo.

European Cycle Messenger Championships 2008
5 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

Eindhoven is pretty close to London. It seems that you can get there by train in under 4 hours, changing in Brussels and Dordrecht, for less than £100 return. There’s FREE camping on the site of the event! There’s a roller race (courtesy of the exengers at Rollapaluza), there’s parties, there’s fixie events, there’s bike polo (courtesy of Fakengers Using Courier Credits In Traffic), there’s a Kattebak, there’s even a Moving Target checkpoint in the main race. Everything, in other words, that one might expect from a top-notch, bang-on, couriertastic messengexcellent event.

So I hope that there will be a swarm, a horde, a plague of London bicycle messengers in Eindhoven on 25th July for the ECMC. I really enjoyed the CMWC in Toronto, but I missed you guys. It wasn’t the same without the London crew.

Register now! (60 Euros before 16th July). Buy a train ticket! Get House of Pistard to print some team shirts! And remember: beer in Holland is really, really cheap.

Super cheap fixes for couriers!
5 July 2008 by Buffalo Bill

Matt of Hub Cycles, which operates out of the back garden of a private residence in Hackney, perhaps better known as Chandra’s gaffe, is offering a special rate to London’s bicycle messengers. For the duration of the summer he will do any job for £10. For more details give him a call on 07505 006432.