Woah, this was published in the Chronicle back in 1999?  That messenger has to be, like, 50-something now and taking heart medication.  How did the Chron possibly come to that conclusion way back then?:

Rebecca Tiller, bicycle messenger hot dog extraordinaire, has a new motto as she goes tearing around the alleys, parked cars and roadways of downtown San Francisco delivering packages. […]

She is riding the hot new thing in the world of bike messaging: a track bike, otherwise known as a crazybike, groovybike, or as some put it with grudging admiration, “that dumb bike only an idiot would ride.”

Of course, to Tiller and about 30 fellow messengers who ride these ultra-light, extra-fast — and, by the way, probably illegal — things, there is only one word to describe them.

“Awesome.”

Awesome!  Almost as rad as the editoral published a few days later:

TRACK BIKES, what a great concept!

San Francisco's bike messengers are zipping about town on a new breed of bicycle that goes faster than regular bikes and has no brakes.

And I think we all agree that the problem with bike messengers has been that they rode too slow and braked too often.

Actually, the track bikes do have brakes, but the brakes have a complicated, technical name — pedestrians.

All this sounds very familiar.  Also, if “that dumb bike only an idiot would ride” was cool way back in 1999 and already the scorn of haters, what does it make it today?

(photo via ahtbm)