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Bike messenger v taxiVideo: Bike messenger races taxi across Chicago
What's faster across the city of Chicago, a top bike messenger or a taxi? In this video, we find out.
Nico Deportago-Cabrera is one of the world's fastest bike messengers, according to Red Bull, who made this clip. Does he know the streets of Chicago better than a cabbie? And if he does can he get from downtown to the northern centre faster?
They set out at the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower and the tallest building in the world from its completion in 1973 until the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia claimed the title in 1998.
Their destination is Wrigleyville, location of the Chicago Cubs ground at Wrigley Field, which you may remember from the movie The Blues Brothers.
It's 5.6 miles by bike, 7.2 miles by car, but the cab can take the fast freeways while Nico has to battle surface streets with their traffic, lights and slow-moving buses.
Who's fastest? Whose machine reigns supreme? Watch and find out.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
- brooksby 18 min 24 sec ago
https://bikesnobnyc.com/2023/03/07/soft-rides-demand-hard-people/
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If only I hadn't created this tension by being on the road when the Stagecoach 42 wanted to get through to Dodge City!...
- chrisonabike 44 min 47 sec ago
Just wait until UK authorities find out about the Dunwich Dynamo...
- MattieKempy 46 min 28 sec ago
Looks like a great bike, but I'd be far more interested in a review of the Standert Pfadfinder if the opportunity arises, road.cc
- Pub bike 2 hours 46 min ago
Their overshoe sizing table is completely wrong. My feet are not particularly big and I needed the XXL size to fit over some specialized BG shoes....
- Billsmiles 2 hours 51 min ago
I'm guessing a lot of students choose to live at home because of the cost, commuting a fair distance, student digs too cost at least £650 pcm - ...
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Many manufacturers, including Scribe, can give you methods to reduce the noise level. On Scribe, and other ratchet designs it's usually just adding...
- wtjs 23 min 58 sec ago
It wouldn't work at all where wtjs lives...
- Sriracha 15 hours 35 min ago
Pretty sure AI could skim through hours of footage in a few seconds to identify suspicious events. Of course someone in authority has to care in...
- chrisonabike 15 hours 43 min ago
Bonsai samurai? Or is it just a case of "they seem to get smaller every year"?
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25 comments
I'd far rather my parcel was delivered by a cyclist than a motorist. It is amazing the visceral hatred of cyclists that you find even on a cycling site.
I'd far rather my parcel was delivered by a cyclist than a motorist. It is amazing the visceral hatred of cyclists that you find even on a cycling site.
Ha ha ha! For once I agree with all the abuse levelled at this guy. Good job guys
How to make everyone hate cyclists in 4 minutes...
How to make everyone hate cyclists in 4 minutes...
Why all the negative comments?
Because he's cock cheese.
Did James May come last again?
Absolute prick.
Red Bull - live till 35, die under the wheels of a bus.
What is cool about riding like an arse and forcing cars to break and pedestrians to stop to avoid getting hit by him as he goes through red lights.
What a prat and quite irresponsible of red bull
Oh just f**k off.
This is a walk in the park compared with the nutters on the Line Of Sight film
What an arse.
Redbull again…
My pizza is cold and all the topping is a mess.
Honda C90 every time!
Perhaps if he used a decent bike he would have beaten the taxi. Or cut his hair. Not very aero
Why does he keep wiping his hands down the sides of buses, even when there is plenty of room?
It's something the fixerarti do. Looks kinda cool I suppose.
It's like 2006 all again!
Oh dear.
He probably had to stop to urinate all that Redbull crap out his system.
Not sure why we're supposed to be impressed at this guy?
He is enjoying riding his bike and sharing that with us. Whats not to enjoy. You all work for Health and Safety? Nothing here looks very dangerous, and nothing as threatening to safety as the av. poor driving we take for granted every day. Wake up people!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygvExSLt8x4
asedrt89