Gallery : What’s as Fast as a Fax but Much Sweatier? : L.A.’s . . . Spokes People

They are objects of scorn and scars--chased by motorists, screamed at by pedestrians. They are the city’s bicycle messengers--with their own language: Toothless V “flies” (bikes) past “suits” (businessmen) as he heads down “The Banzai Pass” (6th Street from the Harbor Freeway to Broadway). If his brakes aren’t working, he uses his “Fred Flintstones” (feet) to stop.

In this day of faxes and E-mail, many court documents still must be paper originals and filed in person. That makes up the bulk of the business of the 80 or so messengers who earn about $19 an hour.

But which is fastest? Longtime messenger Ross Lawson believes one of his speediest messengers could beat a 50-page cross-town fax. And, he says, “the flap of the envelope would probably still be damp when it arrived.”