A bike messenger -- what a cushy job, right? Ride your bike around all day, get exercise and a tan. But try riding your bike with 60 pounds strapped to your back and two boxes stacked on the handle bars as you quickly maneuver through afternoon rush-hour traffic at Water and Wisconsin.
Now try doing all of that in a late December snow storm.
Such are the lives of the 10 guys who work at Breakaway Bicycle Courier, Milwaukee's sole bicycle-only messenger service. John Sharpe, 30, and Wayne Wallner, 27, started the business in March 1998, and since then they've attracted about 300 regular clients and average about 130-180 runs a day. These businessmen peddle whatever goods their clients need, from 60 pounds of cookie dough and cases of beer to golf clubs and car batteries. They deliver the usual suspects, too -- letters, documents and the like.
Only about six of all daily runs are scheduled in advance, so there's no such thing as a typical day in the life of a bike messenger, says Wallner, a Milwaukee-area native. Their Wells St. office is equipped with four phone lines, a two-way radio and a computer so bikers can be in constant touch with the dispatcher, who is, in turn, in touch with the customers, all of whom are in Milwaukee.
The business is open from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, and inclement weather never closes them down.
"The post office shut down one winter, but we were still open," Wallner says.
In fact, Breakaway's busiest times are winter and early spring. In November and December come the holiday packages, while February, March and April are tax months. When the weather is nice, people are more likely to deliver packages themselves or send their gophers to do it, says Sharpe, who hails from Madison.
The heat of summer can be more brutal to bike messengers than the cold of winter, but the worst weather is the cold rain of late fall and early spring, according to Sharpe.
"In winter, the exercise of riding keeps you warm, and in summer at least you can get into air conditioned buildings when you're delivering," Sharpe says. "But you can't get away from that cold rain."
The Breakaway bikers pride themselves on efficiency, and the two-way radios come in handy when, say, a messenger gets hit by a car on the way to deliver a package and must hand the package off lest the customer not receive it on time. That really happened to Wallner. He was hit by a car coming out of a parking garage and injured his knee so badly that he couldn't ride his bike. So he got on the radio and called for back-up. The package made it to its destination on time.
In addition to being bike messengers, the Breakaway cyclists also are pseudo-paralegals. All Breakaway messengers know enough about the Milwaukee County Courthouse to research case information and find documents customers need, Sharpe says.
They also shop for their customers. If a customer needs a case of soda or a bottle of wine, a messenger will buy the goods and deliver them for no extra charge.
And the traffic? For the most part, traffic is courteous to bike messengers, Wallner says. They all have been hit by a car at least once, Sharpe admits, but none have been mortally wounded.
Even still, Sharpe recommends that all bike messengers wear a helmet.
"I wouldn't be caught dead out there without one," he cautions.
