I have one of the old Globe messenger bags that Eric mentions -- from about 1986 -- still going strong -- I had a friend who had spent time as a messenger in NYC -- told me that was the ONLY place to get a good messenger bag.
I wasn't a messenger, but I've used that bag for a lot of things -- In college, before I owned a car, I'd take my bike grocery shopping (the bag held 2 good-sized bags of groceries), to the laundromat (2 loads), school (many books), and the pet store (40 lb. bags of dog food). I used it quite a bit with a motorcycle as well.
Kyle Brooks Akron, OH
________________________________ From: Eric Schambach <eric.schambach@gmail.com> To: John Betmanis <johnb@oxford.net> Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 10:36:16 AM Subject: Re: [CR] What REAL bike messengers use and buy in San Francisco
Actually the first "real" messenger bags were made for lineman as something you can swing around and access with one hand. These were made by Frank DeMartini at his Globe canvas shop on Mott street in NY, they also repaired sails. The last bag I bought from the shop in the mid 1990s was a custom job but still cost under $100.
Erik Zo in San Francisco copied(and some say improved upon) the DeMartini design and started producing his Zo bags, selling them mostly to messengers at a decent price.
And John I hope you are not insinuating that bike messengers are not "REAL cyclists"...
Cheers,
Eric Schambach NYC
On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 10:06 AM, John Betmanis <johnb@oxford.net> wrote:
> Jon Spangler wrote:
>
>> REAL bike messengers across the bay in San Francisco spend $80 - $200 on
>> CHROME, Timbuk2, and similar bomb-proof bags, and in daily hard use
>> wear them out relatively quickly (2-5 years) despite their being built
>> like tanks out of Cordura and Ballistics cloth, among other materials. That
>> is probably
>> 2-3 days' worth of gross pay (for very hard work) for an average bike
>> messenger.
>>
> Well, to steer this thread back on topic and away from bike messenger or
> Carnaby Street haute couture, the only kind of bag a REAL CYCLIST would
> carry is a bonk bag.
>
> This one costs 1/10 of the one from Brooks. http://www.rapha.cc/
>
> "Back in the day" these were home made from striped deck chair material,
> patterned after the throw-away musettes handed out at feeding stations in
> road races.
>
> --
> John Betmanis Woodstock, Ontario Canada