They're Danish, they ride long johns instead of wearing them andthey've written to MT.
Moving Target,Volume 3, Issue 2, 1992
Hello London Cycle buds and cycle freaks! We thought we'd let you inon what's happening on the streets of Juttish Denmark, several hundredkilometres from wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. The snow hasn't been fallingtoo heavily this winter so we have our Cannondales on the streets thesedays instead of our sledges, skis and huskies. The rain is still fallingbut the temperatures are rising and life on the streets for pedestriansis becoming harder. Here come the Cycle Buds.....
There has been a long tradition in Denmark of using cycles far work:police, firemen and most commonly, delivery boys on their Long John cycles[as used by Patrick Field to carry the wreath on the Marble Arch to SohoSq. ride-Ed] especially designed for transporting crates of Danish beer.The boom in the wide-spread use of cars, aka stinking petrol cans on wheels,put an end to all that......but now we are back with a vengeance equippedwith modern MTBs, walkie-talkies and computer guidance, but the power sourceman has been using since the Stone Age.
We are a relatively new company that was started by a bunch of friendsa year and a half ago. Two cycle freaks dropped out of school to put intopractice their ideas on starting a cycle messenger firm. A group of unemployedfriends lent a hand, or rather a leg. The three that survived the winterwent on to become the crazed joint owners. We now have five co-owners and5 brain-sick messengers. We are a pretty international bunch, not justthat we come from different parts of Denmark but also we have ccs herefrom Cologne, San Francisco and Birmingham. Even though the workload isincreasing we manage to keep the collective attitude and lunacy predominant.Very characteristic of our firm is our method of dividing income: our ccsreceive a steady wage. This requires team-spirit but enables us to workon a democratic basis. We hold weekly meetings where everything of importanceis discussed, like who is on the hit-list for the coming week. We havea free cycle repair workshop and rapid repair service, like for examplewhen one of our ccs got squashed between a bus and a truck our allen keywizard left his magazine and was on the spot in five minutes with a sparewheel (by the way, this techno-loony also ensured that the cheapest bikethat we ride is worth 700 quid).
We are fortunate here in Aarhus that the bike is such an acceptablemode of transport. Therefore some of the one way streets are open in bothdirections to cyclists only (and even if they aren't we use them anyway).We have many cycle(psycho)paths which makes things easier for granniesand toddlers but not for men and women like us. So if you fancy ridingin Denmark at a reasonable pace sure to steer clear of them! The timeswe really get to be a menace on these cycle ways is when we totally 'clear'them. Our cycle trailer loaded with £6000 worth of computer equipment isan effective aid to this..... (one of our funnier tours [tour=job Ed) waswhen we used the trailer to transport a bride to be on her Hen night. Weworked overtime, they paid cash).
Sometimes we take serious tours, like the time we should've delivereda birthday cake to the Crown Prince of Denmark: (un)fortunately he wasn'thome, so to prevent it from going stale we ate it instead.
By the smell in the air there's something rotten this day in the thestate of Denmark. That's why we are here. It literally stinks when peopleneed a van to transport a simple letter around the centre of town! We wouldlike to wipe out our waste producing competition by putting more cycleson the streets. Everytime our phone rings it's potential van on the scrap-heap(ready to be re-cycled for better use.) We like to advertise a green messageand have received sponsorship for our clothes from Greenpeace. Our customersare attracted to this but use us because we ride Greased Lighlning. Wedon’t look forward to a future where we have to wear anti-pollution masksand therefore are interested in pushing the green message further.
We are very interested in establishing international relations, exchangingstories and such like. One of our messengers is soon coming to London tostart a travel agency. He's looking forward to seeing some of you ccs inaction. In the meantime write to us!
A thousand tours and no punctures
... med venlig hilsen
Miles Ratledge Andreas Riecke
CYCLEBUDENE's address is:
Mejlgade 18 8000
Arhus C DENMARK
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