Motorcycle courier. Who has done it?

OldBlade

OldBlade

Cupid Stunt
I had a very cool job working for a startup company in the UK back in the '70s. We made aftermarket electronic ignition for cars and motorcycles.

I was a design engineer on the electronics side. But as I rode a motorcycle, I was given the job of riding all over the south of England in all sorts of weather delivering stuff.

My bike at the time was a '76 CB400F. Such a cool bike. It served me well.

After that, my career took me to all sorts of places in europe and asia. Riding a motorcycle in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore are experiences I will never forget.

Do you have any similar stories?
 
littlebeast

littlebeast

get it while it's easy
have no similar story, but had a colleague who used to do moto taxi service in paris. loved it, and apparently their clients did also. they tell some great stories.
 
Cincinnatus

Cincinnatus

Not-quite retired Army
There's a vid here on teh BARFs about a moto-delivery service that specializes in human organs (Germany/Netherlands/Belgium?).
 
rodr

rodr

Well-known member
There's a thread dedicated to this on advrider. It suffered a bit from their software upgrade, but definitely still one of my favorites.
 
KittenMeat

KittenMeat

Life: It's Terminal!
I used to do this on my SV650. I was a bicycle messenger, but at night we would do food deliveries. I'd put up the bike, hop on the moto, and I'd grab jobs that even the car couriers couldn't hack.

in the city, a moto can park just about anywhere. I had a cargo net and a big ass tank bag. I fit like 6 pizzas and a bunch of pasta dishes on the bike one time.

I could hop a curb, get to the location, and then blast as far as the sunset in the time it would take a car courier just to park their shit.

it was awesome, and I was able to support myself until my health insurance expired and I had to have a procedure done to fix my insides.
 
psychocandy

psychocandy

wrecker
I remember talking to a dude that was a moto-courier back in the late '90s. I was working a temp job in SF, he was in the elevator with me in rain pants and a stinky beat to hell textile jacket. I told him I rode too and asked him about his bike/job. I was coming back from my lunch break and he told me he'd been back & forth from Sacramento (the city, not the street) 3 times already that day and would probably end up there at least one more time before the day was over.

I saw him get on his bike, I don't remember what it was, but IIRC it was something like a Bandit 1200 with some zip ties keeping the fairing together.

3x back & forth from Sac before lunch? Not for me.
 
Tri750

Tri750

Mr. Knew it All
I've done 46 funeral escort runs within the last 14 months.
It's a fun job in a city like Fresno with many of them in tiny rural towns where people still show respect and pull over.

Some have been "gang" funerals in sketchy areas with undercover PD looking for suspects.
There was one where the deceased guys gang wanted to caravan thru the enemy gang turf where the shooting of the deceased took place.
Maybe 100 cars lots of 22's, thumping, bandanas waving, yelling out the windows. There were 6 of us on bikes, not a sworn officer in sight, and they stopped to get out at the scene to lay flowers. 3 blocks of cars parked. I was at the tail and packed them in 3 across, then hauled butt around to the front of the procession to wait for them to finish. We picked them up when they were done taunting. No problem really.
It helps that our County is a "shall issue" area so Mr. G26 goes along every ride.

Lots of stories, mostly positive though.
We help carry flowers, give directions, offer kind words, help ladies cross streets and up stairs, calm the drunks (yes, at Church's) break up fights, stop car break ins, change a flat tire when needed, smile at kids, give our extra water to folks that succom to "the vapors" we've been pall bearers to folks that didn't have 6 people attend the service or where everyone there was very old and couldn't do it.
105 degree days are hard on this old fat man, 38 degree days and rain I'll do anytime with my trusty R1100RT.
You want to be a better rider? Like a much better rider? Do funeral escorts with good guys. You'll surprise yourself and maybe become a better person too.
 
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Gabe

Gabe

COVID-fefe
I worked for a couple of months picking up checks for the League of Conservation Voters. I rode all over the Bay Area on my '77 R100/7--my first experience getting paid to ride.
 
moto-rama

moto-rama

Well-known member
My older sister got me a a short-term gid with Associated Press when I was in high school, at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. Riding a Matchless 500, and delivering film from photographers to the AP plant at the airport.

3 weeks total, in a town with hostile police, where I had to spend half my time trying to figure out where I was.

If you are a high school kid, this seemed like the job of a lifetime, but in reality, I was scared shitless most of the time....

Oh, and in junior high school, I delivered blue prints in downtown, on a bicycle, Oakland for a printing company.... cool job! Didn't pay much, but cool job anyway.
 
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redruM

redruM

Peripheral Visionary
Here's an awesome interview with local subculture legend Ray Roy who talks about (among other things) a moto messenger service he ran in SF back in the 80s & 90s:

RR: Chris Crew started Lightning Messenger in 1985 on 1st and California St. out of a phone booth. There was a bar and a paper-stand guy on the corner who would help Chris out. The messengers would get dispatched out of that phone booth and the guy at the stand would hold on to the packages for us if we needed to drop anything off. That was basically Chris’ first office and he would do his billing on bar napkins.

http://chopanddestroy.blogspot.com/2011/12/for-those-of-you-who-havent-had-honor.html
Click to expand...
 
machete

machete

black out
Funeral escorts are fun, thru Chinatown in SF, with a marching band. :laughing

Never been a moto courier though.
 
elbacalao

elbacalao

My office.
machete said:
Funeral escorts are fun, thru Chinatown in SF, with a marching band. :laughing

Never been a moto courier though.
Click to expand...

back in 99 - 00 I was in those marching bands a bit. Based out of the Green St Mortuary. I believe there are a couple of other North Beach/China Town mortuary's doing that now.
 
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