Flleetfoot "back in the day"

Everyone talks about "back in the day," This is my back in the day post, seems like such a long time ago and really some of the best times of my life. Well early 20's that is. 

So this is Fleetfoot messenger service, this was almost everybody that worked with us on the biker side in 03'. RIP Devil Dog

We used to meet up after the blueprints and bank deposits and whatever else we had to deliver were done and hang. We were a really tight knit family, we hung after work, on the weekends, threw races, worked on each other's bikes and partied.  Very rarely, we let outsiders in, we had a lot of pride in the amount of volume we could move during the day. Often enough the only time we would see each other is when we met up to hand off HOT jobs that were going to that persons zone. You see, we had such a large volume that we split the city up into zones, when riders had jobs approaching their deadline we would meet up and swap zones. After we met up we would go through tracking and clearing. What job went to what rider and what was delivered. I know, doesn't make sense but it worked and so did we, more often than not, in the rain and on lovely Seattle hills. 

 This was in the original base, this was our clubhouse. We would meet up here drink, bitch, and talk shit. Often enough we would have a bbq going the alley. 

This is the crew meeting up for an "R.V" to swap zones, that way a rider wouldn't be stuck in the same part of the city all day. There were 7 zones and 7 riders. Looks like a summer day so we were a bit slower than the winter.

This is the old base as well, we had a full bike shop with wholesale accounts and storage. The helmet on the bike stand was a rookie helmet or if you fucked up you would put this on and the whole crew would throw shit at you. We all wore it...

This is part of the crew meeting up for another "RV". Looks like the last one of the day, often enough beers were in the mix.  That's PJ in the mask, he would try and wear this into courthouses.

A messenger Coney Island themed bar Shorty's, we would meet up at before base to file our overnights. 4$ pitchers and 2$ Coney dogs.

This is 20 Jeff "Money" A great messenger, racer, painter, and friend.

To the left is 13 Patrick and his girlfriend Billie, great people and amazing chefs.

This is Eddy Silvetti, for years I called him savetti. He was a great dispatcher and friend, he would always look out for you both on and off the road. He was a messenger for years before I was on the road.

A lot of messengers were in bands, on the weekends we'd meet up for shows. The drummer of this band recently passed. RIP Adam Alore!

During this time I started going down to San Francisco for races. This is Emi's  bike, I was so thrown back when I first saw this in 03'. Notice the double single straps... was pretty common for that time.

 This is James Newman and Nick Dale and two people we ran into. I'm sorry I forgot your names, on my 2nd trip to S.F. I blame everything on them. During this time we were roommates and D.J. buddy's. They got me into track bikes and messenger culture. They helped throw the CMWC'S in Seattle.

 As timed moved on I got more into bikes and racing and tricks, this was my dining room in 04' my race Eddy Merckx and my training Eddy Merckx. At this time we would messenger during the week and train and race on the weekend's.

This is a really bad shot of my apartment at the time but you get the idea, track bike, art, records and a couple of road bikes with some rollers.

So move forward a couple of years, Fleetfoot moved to a new base with no clubhouse and a much smaller shop. This was my track bike, well my work bike at least. We all rode pretty nice bikes and had multiple machines laying around or being built up.

 During these years I worked and raced for this bike shop, Counterbalance Bicycles. One of my favorite shops still. Messenger own and ran, we specialized in commuter, road track and even some mountain.  This was a Ad for the shop that was shot by James Newman. The shop has since closed.

This is the year I met Dustin from Cadence, I think it was 04 or 05. We used to meet up weekly if not more and ride and come up with whatever tricks we could think of. We both came from a skateboarding backround so it was very easy to apply. This was an Ad for a magazine called Cranked, that was around for a couple of years that was shot by a co-messenger Rob 32 on our crew for Cadence/ Re-load.
Colin, from Macaframa told me a couple of years back in S.F. this ad is how he learned how to leg over skid.  Pretty cool to see how far along everything has come.




Sorry about the quality of the photos, I recently had these rolls shipped out after years of being in storage. These were the few that came out.
So there ya have it, my back in the day...
Shortly after I packed it up and headed East, to Philly in 05'.