On Saturday 6th September at midday.
Leaving the campsite at Zeeburg on the outskirts of Amsterdam and heading north through Holland and across the world famous afsluitdijk to the first checkpoint in Bolsward. After that, through Friesland and the North-East Polder to Zwolle for the second checkpont. Then over the Veluwe to Arnhem for the third. And finally along the length of the Utrechste Heuvelrug back to Amsterdam.

The shortest route is about 380km and the winner will likely be back in Amsterdam before dawn. I will be aiming to finish in under 20 hours.

More information here : http://www.dutchmessengers.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=630

If you want to register you can do so here : http://www.dutchmessengers.nl/inschrijving.php

You can see who has registered already here : http://www.dutchmessengers.nl/inschrijving.php?getall=1

Delivering packages around Auckland city has helped turn courier Jenna Makgill into a world champion.

Auckland City Harbour News, Friday, 15 August 2008

By SCOTT MORGAN

The St Lukes resident was the best woman rider in the Cycle Messenger World Championships held in Toronto during June.

The 22-year-old, who works for Urgent Couriers, says she wasn?t expecting to come away a winner.

"It?s kind of surreal. I just went there to meet other couriers and hang out."

But riding around the hilly streets of Auckland gave her the edge on the competition.

"Auckland is one of the hardest cities to courier in. Here couriers are more aggressive and people aren?t used to having bikes around," she says.

"There are more dangers and I?m really conscious that I?m going to get hurt."

The competition involved riding a set course for three hours dropping off and picking up packages at different checkpoints, while locking up her bike in-between deliveries.

((read more))

Christian Wolmar, one of Britain's leading transport commentators, serves on the board of Cycling England, which promotes cycling. Last month he spoke at three On Your Bike conferences organised by the NSW Government.
ripped from The Sydney Morning Herald
By Christian Wolmar
August 12, 2008

When I came to Australia to talk about cycling, I borrowed a bike and headed off to the suburbs, with the help of an experienced local rider. It was an eye-opening experience. I had no idea how far behind Sydney was compared with most European cities in terms of accommodating, let alone encouraging, cyclists.

There seems to be an almost overt hostility to cyclists not only from many motorists, but more importantly from the planners and highway engineers who create the street environment.

It may be only a small thing, but even the drains in gutters can easily catch a cyclist's wheels because the grooves run parallel to the road rather than at right angles, as is the case in most other cities. When I was cycling on Parramatta Road, I desperately needed the safety of those gutters to have a reasonable chance of surviving the rush-hour traffic but found that I had to swerve out into the car lane to avoid being felled by the storm drain.

Sydney has the occasional bit of good infrastructure, such as the dedicated paths over bridges, the lanes laid out by more supportive local councils such as Leichhardt and the cycle parking hoops that have started appearing in the central business district, but clearly there is no overall policy supportive of cycling. (.cont)

Maybe watching this footage will help us appreciate how good our Police are in Sydney, I know i know they aren't perfect but compare them to the Police in a lot of other countries and Sydney cops seriously seem to have there priorities a lot straighter than most other places....

Ive been hearing some crazy stories about how hard cyclists/ messengers in New York have had it and how they've had to fight for every little thing they've got! Stories from years ago about messengers constantly bailing each other out of jail and stuff like that, It appears they don't really get arrested that often anymore but they still get constantly cut off and nearly run over by assholes,One step at a time eh...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUkiyBVytRQ

Hi from the west folks!

So we finally got our arses into gear and have some kick ass hoodies and water bottles available over at neinlives. We've got a few brown, a few navy blue and a whole heap of that courier staple... black!

all funds going to helping neinlives stay solvent and towards helping us putting on a darn tootin ACMC in '09

head to http://www.neinlives.com.au/apparel.html to order... you'll get to look cool, stay warm and feel all fuzzy inside knowing your money is going to a good home...

Cheers, Ezy

G'day all,

Was great to catch up with so many lads at Farrer Pl and meet some fresh faces. No matter what is said of bike messengers, as a community, they are as accepting and enthusiastically interested in others as even the most humanitarian group of people.

My little bike shop has had to close under the weight of fiscal burden. Business as usual through my home for servicing etc, spares & accessories if you're looking for stuff. Got some Continental 26" slicks (Achtung! - german made), brand new that I'm trying to move. I paid $50 the pair. Make me an offer! I've got used frames, wheels and heaps of bits and pieces. I just don't have the room to store all of it.

To everyone following Le Tour de France, have a great Saturday night watching, hopefully, Cadel Evans Time Trial his way to an historic win. Hard to believe it's now a very real possibility an Australian will be GC winner.

Stay safe, stay warm, stay dry!
Adrian
0416 494 442

On July 23, 1998, Toronto messenger Wayne Scott made tax law history. For the first time a court decision made it possible for bike and foot messengers to deduct their extra food expenses as a business expense equivalent to "fuel". The Federal court agreed with Wayne's argument that the extra food required by messengers to perform their jobs was similar to the gas required by car couriers to perform their jobs.

The original court decision allowed couriers to deduct $11 per day as a fuel expense for food. As of 2008 the current deduction permitted is $17 per day.

This amounts to a deduction of about $4,250 every year for all bike and foot messenger in Canada since 1998. It's one of the few times someone has put money in messengers' pockets.

Thanks Wayne!

Well im getting warnings in my INBOX about the fact hat we are peaking our bandwidth for the month. Whats going on I think ... but sure enough this site is just taking off... we have almost grown at a rather startling rate we are as busy to the same size of the previous month by the 22nd of that month. CRAZY.. for a bunch of guys who cant even be bothered to log in and just comment as "shadow" or even use their nick and not log on proppa like. Anyway.. Be told folks. I will no longer go though and authorize you posts if you have a log in but are to lazy to use em.

The pope has gone home and last month we had 11637 unique IPs hit sydbma.org.
Our biggest referrer was google images with people looking at messengers and couriers and mtb and fixed as search terms. the toatl amount of pages served was 275862 in the month of June.

now thats huge.
key phrases put in search engines top 10 for June 08 :
sydbma 619 25.6 %
ass 84 3.4 %
bomber forks 42 1.7 %
marzocchi bomber 38 1.5 %
fixie 21 0.8 %
cmwc 08 19 0.7 %
single speed 13 0.5 %
www.sydbma.org 11 0.4 %
toronto messenger 11 0.4 %
messenger bike photos 10 0.4 %

this GT is a Medium Sized frame with red and silver detailing

Some footage that is not negative towards couriers is HARD TO FIND

www.fixed-mag.com

You can download it.

I suppose most of you have seen/heard what happened to Flash on Friday.
For those who haven't, a cab did a U turn in front of a bus outside 2 Chifley.
The resulting impact sent the cab over the footpath and into the wall of Chifley tower next to the cabstand shelter. Unfortunately Flash's bike was locked to the pole next to the shelter and, infact half of it remained locked to the pole and under the taxi. The other half, well see for yourself.....
Check out the news story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOWJg3brafo

6:30pm Detour de Tour
8:30pm The Triplets of Belleville
Picnic on the gallery floor. Bring blankets, baguettes, bottles of plonk,
berets and bad accents. Free!
Brought to you by BIKESydney and the Bicycle Film Festival 2008
(Nov 14 + 15 Dendy Newtown)
A big thank you to Empire Concepts and the National Film and Sound
Archive for the films.
Find out about more great events by joining up at www.bikesydney.org
That’s free too!

Hey boys and girls,

Has Tour De France anticipation reached fever pitch yet? Certainly has for me!

Cadel Evans has turned in as odds on favourite through 'Sports Bet' for the General Classification.

Andy Schleck looks the goods to me. With a strong team (Team CSC - Stuart O'Grady, Brad McGee, Matt Goss, Jens Voight, Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Carlos Sastre, Bobby Julich - WOW! Nothing but proven talent there.) all working for him, he should see himself on the rostrum in Paris. Good odds to - 9:1 last time I checked.

Bring on Saturday 5th. VIVA LE TOUR!

Good luck to NSW in tonights (Wed 1st) 'State Of Origin' decider.

Peace and prosperity!
Adrian

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/streetstories/stories/2008/2271152.htm

check it.

your gonna recognize a few of the voices

There are many cities that could aspire to the title of 'bike heaven', cities where cycle paths abound and where governments and car users alike regard bicycles as a solution to traffic problems rather than a cause of them. Sydney isn't one of them.

We had a very interesting open forum on monday june 16 and yes as everyone expected Tokyo has been confirmed as the host for the 2009 Cycle Messenger World Championships.... The International Federation of Bike Messenger Associations reinstated most of its council members plus a few extras (me) and we talked about committing to the Global Alliance for Eco Mobility.... As we considered the pros and cons of being part of the "bigger picture" and involving ourselves in Cycling, Road Safety, Urban planning and environmental awareness it became very clear that Cycle Messengers have fresh, professional, important and original opinions as far as these topics are concerned..... The vote was enanomous we are now committed to being an active part of the global alliance for equal mobility.

http://www.ecomobility.org/news.php

CMWC Toronto

1st Shino [sic] Japan
2nd Porno Steve Swiss?
3rd Jumbo Copenhagen
4th Austin NYC
5th ???
6th Furgus SF
7th Dan C. NYC
8th Craig Boston
9th Bruce DC
10th Peter B. Boston

Flicker images
http://www.flickr.com/groups/786892@N21/pool/

From Moving Target
http://www.movingtargetzine.com/article/anyone-got-any-sleep
http://www.movingtargetzine.com/article/cycle-messenger-world-champion-m...
Tokyo Messenger
http://www.tokyomessenger.com/ (Japanese only)

sydbma roving reporter doddsy
http://www.sydbma.org/bikes/node/237
-----------------------------
By SARAH HOOD
The Globe and Mail, June 14, 2008

You would think the last thing a bike courier would want to do on holiday is deliver things.

Hey messenger chaps and chapettes,

Hope everyone is well and pulling in the big "end of financial year" dollars.

I need to tap into the great pool of knowledge that is the messenger community. I've just built up a Bianchi free-wheeling S/S for sale and have installed a lever that does both front and rear brakes. After some effort I've got both brakes set up with equal pull-up. Has anyone out there used or had experience with this type of braking? What kind of life span do you get before they require readjustment? They seem to loose tension quicker than normal, which is to be expected.

I also wanted to get an up-date on how Peter McDonald is going in Europe. I could try the Drapac Porsche website but this way I can get the inside running.

If Baden reads this, or if someone wants to pass on a message, do you still want the 'Poker' book?

Thanks again to all those who've offered support and encouragement to my fledgling business.

I look forward to any feedback re the above questions.

Keep the peace and ride safe.

Cheers!
Adrian

Hey guys i think i've found my calling in life but i may need help....

i'm in Toronto trying to retire and figure out how to give up messengering (FOR THE GAZZILLIENTH TIME) so im endeavouring to experience something and write a story about it.... Then see where i end up (sorry but ive been so excited that i havent really slept for a week (without taking drugs)). So far a lot of bad things have happened but I've managed to have the best time of my life so forgive me if things seem a little hard to follow (but putting all my thoughts on this site makes me happy)....

I have been trying to create boundaries in my life for a long time so as to start a fresh a few things in my life may have happenned for a reason.... I couldn't focus at my major talent in life (messengering) and focus on other (more important) things at the same time i was MESSED UP AND GREEDY. I tried hard to change and give it up but i havent been able too.... SO LISTEN UP I HAVE NOW OFFICIALLY EMBRACED THAT I AM A MESSENGER AND THE WAY THAT I DO MY JOB IS A TALENT AND IT WILL BE A PART OF ME FOREVER! I WILL TRY AND TRANSFER MY MESSENGERING TALENTS INTO EVERYDAY LIFE!

'Sleeping' driver ploughs into bike race

For sydbma.org.
Regards
Fiona

World Environment Day free bike commuter breakfasts
Cyclists will be the toast of the town as City of Sydney marks World Environment Day, Thursday 5 June, with free breakfasts for bike commuters across the City.
The three breakfast sites at Union Square in Pyrmont, Observatory Hill and Hyde Park South, will operate from 7.30 am to 9 am, serving coffee, tea and pastries and handing out free cycling accessories.
When: 7:30am – 9:00am, Thursday 5 June
Where: Union Square in Pyrmont, Observatory Hill and Hyde Park South
More info:
http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/WhatsOn/html/custom/2234-event-detail...

Hey Guys in case you haven't realised im off to Canada next week for at least a year...

To celebrate and say thanks to you lot I'll be having drinks and a noodle/pizza fest in Victoria park 1:00pm this Saturday (corner broadway and city rd)... If its raining we'll be across the road at the Lansdowne for a while and then off around the corner to the Rose hotel (and maybe even the different drummer... Hopefully see you there!

Doddy 0418 812 814

http://www.rideofsilence.org/locations-international.php?i=Australia#Australia
Contact: Michael McGrath
WHERE: Hundreds of locations world wide

Join cyclists worldwide in a silent slow-paced ride (max. 12 mph/20 kph) in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways.
Notes: Ride of Silence Sydney, Saturday 24 May

10 am start from Archibald Fountain, Hyde Park-20 km ride through Paddington, Glebe and Surry Hills. Bring your friends.

Ride poster and leaflet available to download and print at: http://tinyurl.com/5jzsq8

As part of the 2008 Bicycle Film Festival Art exhibition, we will be hosting a messenger photo exhibition at one of the venues(as yet undecided). So please send in any cool messenger related photos you might have and I'll be deciding which ones we will show, with the help of Gilbert from the BFF committee. Photos will be shown from 3-16 November this year. Trying to work on some sponsorship for printing/mounting but we'll see what happens there.
Slip me a disc with your photos or email them to:
messengerphotos@optusnet.com.au

Cheers

Shifty

Check out this new site

http://skingrowsback.com/

Police yesterday served the driver at his Claymore home with a court summons for leaving the scene without supplying his details.

The driver, calling himself "Jason", telephoned Macquarie Radio last Friday and claimed his car had stalled after "the airbox popped" and blamed the cyclists for failing to watch where they were going.

An angry Ben Kersten later rang the radio station claiming "Jason" was a liar.

"We have 50 witnesses to say everything you have said is false," he said.

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash and may lay further traffic charges.

Mascot police Inspector Andrew Bullock said: "There are still two or three more cyclists to be spoken to."

Kate Nichols's father, 1984 Olympic cycling gold medallist Kevin Nicholls, said he was not happy at the news of the charge but was satisfied.

"Nobody's happy with the situation that's occurred, I am not sure what action the police have planned but at least it's a start," he said.

Mr Nichols, who was also riding in the pack last Thursday, said he would "definitely" be willing to give his version of events in a court room.

on 13 May, Question time:
Reverend the Hon. FRED NILE: I ask the Minister for Roads a question without notice. Is the Minister aware that, in any given year, roughly two in every 1,000 males between the ages of 13 and 19 will be hospitalised due to injuries sustained while cycling on Australian roads? Is the Minister aware that between 2003-06 cycling fatalities increased by 27 per cent, with the vast majority of those fatalities resulting after a collision with a motor vehicle on roads where the speed limit was in excess of 70 kilometres an hour? Will the Government take urgent action to prohibit cycling on highways where the speed limit is in excess of 70 kilometres per hour and require cyclists to use other alternative scenic routes?

The Hon. ERIC ROOZENDAAL: As cycling on our roads has been a topical issue recently I appreciate the member's question. At the outset it is worth stating that the road is there for everybody to use and share.

This Friday.
U know where and u know when.
If you do not know and you cant figure it out your prolly not welcome 6 PM "social ride"

Oh yeah 6 bar spins.

In case people have not heard. The NSW State Government are to remove the only bike lanes located in the City of Sydney. Yes, unbelievable. We have a local council (City of Sydney) who wants to increase cycling and a backwards looking state government.

The issue is that under the guise of the papal visit they want to place bus lanes down Park St, without effecting traffic. the only way that the state government believes they can do this is by removing the bike lanes, which of course is untrue. The State Government did not even have the nerve to inform the council till the last minute and then only gave them 48 hours to respond.

http://bikesydney.org/new/