00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - I don't have a time limit to get there,
00:04 but I'm getting there as fast as I can.
00:06 (man screams)
00:08 - Your whole job is figuring out
00:09 the quickest way to get somewhere.
00:11 You don't wanna get stuck at traffic lights.
00:12 You don't wanna be stuck on a pavement
00:13 with 25 people ahead of you.
00:16 - Come on, bro, let's go, let's go.
00:17 - We organize these races to emulate
00:19 those classic New York messenger races.
00:22 (car engine roars)
00:24 There's a lot of talk about the subculture of fixed gear
00:27 and the subculture of bike messenger,
00:29 and I feel like we're living in a postmodern world
00:31 where people have managed to find that artistic
00:34 representation of what bike messengering used to be
00:36 in the late '90s, early 2000s,
00:38 and we're now springing off of that
00:40 on the back of the gig economy.
00:42 - I'm fast enough to win.
00:43 I've got a good enough team behind me to help me win,
00:46 but, you know, there could be a bus in my way, you know?
00:49 (laughs)
00:51 (upbeat music)
00:56 - If there's a big city with a traffic problem
00:58 that needs bicycles to get stuff from A to B,
01:00 you're gonna find people who are crazy enough
01:02 to run brakeless through that city
01:03 and call it a hobby, call it a sport.
01:06 - The whole underground scene of fixed gear riders,
01:09 a lot of people don't know about it.
01:11 - It's become another limb to me to be a bike messenger,
01:14 to be a rider, to just have it there with me.
01:17 - It's me life.
01:18 Nothing comes before me bike.
01:20 - Woo!
01:22 - The Alley Cat scene is really centered around
01:24 the vision of New York messengers
01:26 to take a normal working day
01:28 and project it into who actually is the fastest.
01:32 - All the couriers from different parts of England,
01:34 Wales, Scotland, we all meet up.
01:36 You race from different checkpoints,
01:38 but you all set off at once,
01:40 and we just find out who's the best courier.
01:43 - It's like having a busy day on delivery
01:45 crammed into like 45 minutes of just sheer chaos.
01:49 - Carried up has no hills, my (beep)
01:51 - Yo, move over!
01:53 - I got a flat, bro.
01:54 - Kidding me?
01:55 - I'm gonna send it, bro.
01:57 - Try my bike.
01:58 - Bang it.
02:00 This is gonna rip their legs off, fam.
02:02 Ain't gonna, what's it?
02:04 (upbeat music)
02:06 (electronic music)
02:10 (electronic music)
02:12 [Music]
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