Detroit's bicycle messengers form a tight-knit group; they don't have the numbers of counterparts in San Francisco or New York City, or the trappings of culture that those places offer -- zines, unions or flashy Messenger Appreciation Day celebrations. Compared to other large cities, Detroit's bike messenger population is pretty low, and pretty low-key.
According to "Urban Flow: Bike Messengers and the City" by Jeffrey L. Kidder, if you are a regular person that rides a bike and does not own a shred of spandex, alley cat bike races are your kind of sports championship.
A familiar figure in the downtowns of many major cities is that daredevil of the pavement, the bicycle messenger, zigging and zagging through traffic in order to meet a client?s tight deadline.