Flying the flag for freedom

Crissima Pearce - Bike Courier

by Monique Dykstra
Montreal Gazette,September 24, 1998

A Union Jack flutters beneath Crissima Pearce’s bicycle seat as she rides around Montreal delivering packages. And she always wears a Scottish kilt when she works. "My big sis bought me the skirt at Marks and Spencer in England", she says. "It’s not very aerodynamic, but it works for me."

A sturdy 24 year old from Brighton, England, Pearce currently works as a bike courier in Montreal. Before moving to Quebec, she worked as a courier in several European and North American cities. Pearce is also frequent competitor in national and international courier races.

"I just got back from the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Washington, DC. It was good fun. We had cargo races, track-standing (balancing on your bike with both feet off the ground), sprints and bicycle lock- ups. In the main race, there’s pick-ups and drops, check points and cardboard cut-out pedestrians. If you hit a pedestrian, you get 30 seconds deducted. If you hit them intentionally, they take a minute off."

"I race for the fun of it. And to see everyone. Couriers are great. I love them. It’s like a big community. They’re my family. They have this front of being really tough, but they’ve all got soft hearts down under. And they’re different wherever you go. In Munich, people support their families with couriering. It’s not uncommon to do it for ten years there. In Vancouver, they’re kind of studentish. And rich. They usually do it for a summer, then quit. In San Francisco, they’re a completely different breed- kind of funky and weird."

"Cities are all different too. London is crazy. The city is enormous and the streets are small and wiggly windy. San Francisco is hard on the knees- all the big steep hills. Montreal is built on a grid system so it was easy to learn- I had it down in two weeks."

"I want to do a winter in Montreal. You get respect for that. After that I want to Sydney, Australia. Or maybe Melbourne. I can go anywhere and be a courier. That’s what’s so great about this job- when you get fed up, you can just move on. I want to do it for as long as I can. Until my knees give out. Or my back."

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