At 11:12 AM -0400 9/23/09, <oroboyz@aol.com> wrote:
> << Does anyone know what [if anything] bike messengers in the pre
>WWII period used?
>I'm under the impression they were used by newspapers and perhaps others. Were
>any of these people racers using their day jobs to get in some training? Any
>info appreciated. >>
The Paris "porteurs" have been well-documented, both on Joel Metz' web site and in Bicycle Quarterly. Most of them were racers. The best routes were very lucrative. The porteurs delivered newspapers from the presses to the newsstands in Paris. They used special bikes with large front racks, and canvas bags to keep the papers dry. Back then, newspapers had 4-6 editions a day, so there was plenty of work. The papers were slim, so you could carry a lot on a bike.
Once a year, there was the race of the porteurs. It was hotly contested, the roads of Paris were closed in a rolling enclosure, and the results were reported in the daily papers. We interviewed a porteur who won the race in the 1950s in Bicycle Quarterly Vol. 5, No. 3. He was a rider on the French National Team, and even he had to train hard to beat the other porteurs. For that race, many porteurs used special bikes. Such a bike is shown in our book "The Competition Bicycle."
There also were other bicycle couriers, for example, carrying photos from the photo agencies to the newspaper offices and back.
And then you had the delivery bikes, who delivered anything from groceries to packages. Some delivery riders used three-wheelers, the "tri-porteurs."
Today, they are all extinct, except the postal carriers still ride bikes in Paris (and most of Europe).
Unlike their modern counterparts, the Paris porteurs were not young and poorly paid. Being a porteur was a real job, with benefits and pay based on how many papers you delivered. The porteurs were represented by a powerful union. Many made more money than the editors of the newspapers they served.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com