Samurai Messenger Service

10/27/2020

We’ve literally never sold our cycling gear to anyone but our messengers, so this auction for a one of a kind skinsuit might be your only chance to score any of our cycling swag.

It’s lightly used, but apparently people will buy a used chamois. I don’t know that I would per se, but I also have a lot of samurai messenger cycling gear.

Anyway, if you want to race track or cross when races start happening again, you probably want this. Maybe you need it. It’ll definitely make you faster. Especially with a aero helmet and some leg shaving.

This was the first design did for us, circa 2013. My brother raced a bunch of velodromes in it. No scratches or rips.

Full description in the eBay listing (link in bio).

There’s no reserve. If you’re rich and desperate you can buy it now for way too much money.

10/09/2020

Normally on 10-9 I throw a race or make some kind of reflective statement on the world of messengers, as I see and know it. This obviously isn’t a normal year and I’m at a bit of a loss over what to say. Not like that will stop me from trying.

On March 1st, Samurai had more than 20 employees and on March 31st we had 3. Most businesses - messenger or otherwise went through something similar.

Our work is slowly returning. Clients are in their office limited hours. Limited days. Often not at all! Empty storefronts are easily visible. The empty office tower, far more common here, is a little less obvious from the street.

Traffic is strange. The e-moped rush hour commute would be impressive most days, if it wasn’t squeezing bicycles into even less road space.

No matter how hard we try to change it, being a messenger never pays enough. It’s a job with a lot of risks. Adding a pandemic to the mix wasn’t the kind of change messengers were looking for.

Anyway. I hope you’re doing okay wherever you are. I hope the pandemic is some intangible thing you see as an inconvenience and not the killer of your friends, family, mentors and neighbors.

I hope next year we can get together, share some beers, hug and muddle through some normal bs messenger gossip drama.

As I’ve said on previous 10-9 days,
I appreciate most of you, most of the time. One filthy, smelly love

05/06/2020

How’s everyone doing? Yeah, us too. We still have a bunch of these 10 year anniversary t-shirts available in Medium and Small. Now available without the bundle. FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING is pretty good. But let’s do better. Use promo code messlife to save an additional 10% on these jammies. Support local businesses! Especially ours! No matter where you live.

02/14/2020

I never really thought about it before, but there are a lot of similarities between being a bike messenger and being a pornstar.

- difficult, physically taxing jobs that generally don’t pay enough

- a lot of l**e

- professionals at finding and using the back door

Happy Valentines Day y’all!

01/08/2020

New for 2020: our homage to the 70s MTA. 100% embroidered patch and sticker set based off a design. Our emergency clothing repair kit (seriously, vinyl stickers are as good as duct tape on most gore tex) is now available in our webstore (link in bio.) $12.00, postage paid worldwide.

12/24/2019

Santa is a messenger. Prove me wrong.

12/18/2019

I guess, in the end, there’s really only two kinds of bike messengers: Those who turn down work, and those that don’t. Duty now, for the future. 📸 happy holidays!

11/26/2019

Over the years “Im gonna race for Samurai at this UCI event” is a thing I’ve heard as often “I woke up with a flat.” So, it’s with great joy that I share actually getting out there with the follow through!

11/01/2019

October 9th is International Bike Messenger Appreciation Day.
Despite being a vital link in communications, distribution and logistics for most major industries, bike messengers are rarely recognized for the important services they provide.
Being a messenger is a difficult job. You’re out there, on your own most of the time. You form relationships with the inanimate objects, buildings and traffic you interact with the most.
None of those are going to say thank you, or ask how you’re doing or see what’s new. Neither are most of your clients, security guards or messenger center employees you’ll interact with the most.
The only people you’re likely to form connections with are other messengers. In some cities, that’s a small crew of 10 people and you know every detail of all of their lives. In bigger cities that could be 200 casual relationships.
There’s no ceremony for International Bike Messenger appreciation day. No one is getting a key to the city, no laurel wreath or certificate of recognition.
There’s just us, recognizing each other and offering our appreciation for what we’ve done, what we do, and who we are.
Happy 10-9 Day everyone. I appreciate all of you (ok, ok I appreciate most of you). May your day have good weather, clean lines, low amounts of wait time/wrong addresses/rude security guards, and a cold beer at the end of it, if that’s your thing. -
@ The Second Chance Saloon

05/09/2019

I haven't logged into facebook in like 2 years. Here's a photo of a cargo bike with lots of stuff on it.

08/10/2017

The opposite job of Messenger is Physicist? Well, at least they got the poor decision making part right....

https://t.co/ojGMekrugU https://t.co/miOKopbXO3

“The opposite job of Messenger is Physicist? Well, at least they got the poor decision making part right.... https://t.co/ojGMekrugU”