I have love-hate feelings toward food delivery cyclists in New York City. The hate feelings mainly come from them breaking every conceivable common sense rule related to cycling. They ride the wrong way down one way streets, ride on sidewalks, ride without lights, ride without helmets (the exception being the Domino's Pizza guys - must be the corporate lawyers), and generally are impossible to figure out. And their bikes generally are not in the best mechanical condition.
The love part has to do with admiration for them riding in any conceivable weather condition and of course their ingenuity when it comes to rigging up their bikes to deliver their cargo. The funny thing is that I think most of the hacks they come up with are due to the penny pinching ways of the restaurant owners.
I remember being in a bike shop one day and a delivery rider wheeled in his accident waiting to happen, I mean, delivery vehicle. The rear cantilever brake was broken beyond repair and he wanted to know how much it would be to replace. The kindhearted owner quoted him the price of parts and whatever the guy wanted to tip him for labor (he may have well been a food delivery person in the past).
The rider looked at him, looked at the bike, looked back at him and said without blinking, "That's okay, I'll just ride with the front brake" and took off into the mean streets of Gotham.
Anyway, back to the ingenuity part, check out this hack for delivering pizza. Ingredients? Breadbasket, zip ties, piece of rotting wood, scrap metal, u-bolts and sweat. The upside down thumb shifters are awesome. Kind of makes me want to order delivery right now.
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