Paddy's Day Massacre; a rough draft

Now that we have a new logo... and a beautiful one it is too, I thought I'd give people a rough idea of what we're planning for the weekend.

Fri 13th: The St. Patrick's Day Massacre Alleycat followed by booze...

Sat. 14th: Out-of-towners alleycat (Mel Gibson Logistical Challenge Cup)
Phoenix Park...tricky competitions... more booze

Sun. 15th: Grass track racing(as the velodrome is being resurfaced) Venue tbc.
Footdown, messing... booze

Mon. 16th: Workaday Scavenger Hunt. It's going to be quiet on the road so spend your time
looking for random stuff: full list will be handed out and available here on Sunday
night. 5.30pm points will be tallied... booze

Tue 17th: Hey! It's actually Paddy's Day! If you're not too hungover go see the parade and realise that messengers aren't the only group of raging alcoholics wandering the streets of Dublin.

Party-wise we're looking at Thomas House for one of the nights... maybe Bernard Shaw or Feile
for another... any suggestions still welcome.

If anyone out there wants to donate a few prizes please get in touch also, this event is about so much more than winning (in fact, that's probably the last thing on anyone's mind), but it's nice to reward those who shine.

Photos from previous Massacres here, here and here

Friday! Cleudo alleycat!

Alleycats to beat the band this year! Hot on the heels of the Valentine's Day race comes Ali's Cleudo race (with lots of help form Perrine). He's been wanting to run this for a while so I'm looking forward to it, I know he's put a lot of work into it.

As the flyer states, registration is open form 6.30pm at my favourite start point; Grand Canal Bridge.

All proceeds are going to Frank, who is still hospitalised with an unknown illness at last report.

After party has actually been organised; we have downstairs in Sin e, on Ormond Quay. Anyone who's not racing could help the cause by filling some seats there around 8.30pm.

See you there!

Courier video and stuff...

Lovely video about London's cycle messengers, dedicated to Sebastian Lukomski, who was killed while working 5 years ago.We threw a Ride by Numbers alleycat here in his memory that year if I remember correctly.


Written In The Streets from philip diprose on Vimeo.
(purloined from the Moving Target forum)

Also, photos from the Valentine's alleycat can be found here.
25Sean took the win, becoming a regular occurrence, Daz in 2nd(even though he went to the other side of the city for a checkpoint that didn't exist)... the rest is a blur, someone give me the results please!

Ali's ambitious Cleudo alleycat is happening this Friday. I'll post some more details on that tomorrow when I get them. Proceeds from this are going to go to Frank from Cyclone. Apparently he's been taken into hospital with some illness. Details are sketchy so I won't presume to guess, but there'll be a whip round in Cyclone and all donations on the night of the alleycat will be welcomed, it's a bad time to be out of work.

Sin e, keep the rubber side firmly pressed to the tarmac.

Irish Times

Today's edition of the Irish Times contained 2 articles of interest to cyclists in Dublin.

One detailing the government's uprecedented plans to ban cars from the College Green area by this autumn:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0211/1233867931788.html

The other finally bringing to light the untold statistics of cyclist deaths in Dublin. Hopefully this can prompt some debate like in London and get all HGV's installed with 'blind-spot' mirrors.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0211/1233867931746.html

One interesting statistic that comes to light is:

"Crashes where the fault is more likely to be attributable to the cyclist accounted for a much smaller proportion of incidents. In just over 4 per cent a cyclist hit a pedestrian, while in fewer than 3 per cent of collisions a cyclist turned right into on-coming traffic."

My, my... maybe we're not such a reckless bunch of suicidal maniacs after all! Who'd a thunk it...

Valentines Alleycat

Alleycat this Friday.

Organised by Kropa... so expect pain...

Meet Wilton Place 7/7.30pm.

After party/housewarming in their place. Cliffy and Kerr on the decks.
If you don't know their address, I'm not telling you!

See you there.

Mr. Gay World, 6 Max

Former long-time Cyclone messenger and annoying base controller(sorry Max, but you were :)), Max Kryzanowski (6 Max to most of us), was last night crowned Mr. Gay World in Whistler, Canada.

Max was a great courier, and is a great guy; Dublin Messengers would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him and wish him all the best in the future.

Alleycat Valencia

Good luck to everyone taking part in Valencia's 3rd Alleycat this evening.
Here for details

Mother nature rails against bike lane incursion by errant bus

A double decker bus had it's roof ripped off this morning on Amiens's St. Thankfully there was nobody sitting upstairs... and nobody behind the bus when this occurred.

I should also say... thankfully there was nobody in the bike lane while the bus was driving in it which is what caused the collision.

A team of accident investigators are being sent to figure out the cause of the incident, and a spokeswoman for Dublin Bus said there had been no complaints or safety concerns regarding that tree in the past.

Can I save the accident investigators some time and money? Look at the tree, look at where the bus hit it. Now look down. Bike lane. There are no safety concerns, as long as large vehicles don't enter the bike lane.

I know it's a dual-use lane, the bus can drive there... but look how far in he must have been! How does this city function at all when some of it's main arteries are clogged up like an 80 year old smokers'...

New toy for couriers...

Most of us love coffee... live coffee... can't work without coffee.

Check this out:




Yes... it's a mini-pump that makes your coffee... pump to 160psi, add hot water... yum!
Check it out here

ECMC Registration is open

Registration for this years' European Cycle Messenger Championships in Berlin opened today.
€30 until the end of February and rising incrementally after that.
Check out their web page here for registration.