Update on Fast Eddie Williams' track bike

Ever since the untimely passing in August 2016, of New York’s Legendary Bike Messenger, Fast Eddie Williams, I had wondered what had happened to his bike. Not having direct contact with Eddie’s family, I had no way of knowing.

So imagine my delight when David Perry, one of Eddie’s mechanics since the late 1990s, emailed me to say the bike was in his keeping, being safely held until Eddie’s immediate family decided what to do with it.

Last fall, a curator for the Museum of the City of New York came by inquiring about objects to loan for an upcoming exhibition: “Cycling in the City—A 200-Year History,” from March 14 to October 6, 2019. The museum has chosen to exhibit Eddie’s bike.

Since David Perry is not the bike’s owner, he had to get written approval from Eddie’s family to loan the bike to the museum. That happened this weekend, and David was kind enough to pass the news on to me.

I hope this bike will remain safe in the future, never refinished but left as is, a working bike. Possibly find a permanent museum home, where all can see it as a memorial to Fast Eddie.

Click here, then scroll down to read previous articles about “Fast Eddie”

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Fast Eddie Williams

I awoke Sunday morning to the sad news that New York Bike Messenger Legend “Fast Eddie” Williams had passed away.

Apparently, when Eddie didn’t show for work on Friday morning a coworker went to his apartment where he found Eddie had died during the night.

Life is strange, death is even stranger. We all know it is inevitable, and yet when it happens we are so ill equipped to deal with it.

We are shocked, stunned, we can’t believe it. Or is it just that we don’t want to believe it?

Eddie had been a bike messenger in New York City since 1983, long before riding a fixed wheel, no brakes, track bike on city streets became a hipster fashion. In fact it was the bike messenger who started the craze.

Bike messengers provide an essential service in the city, delivering important documents when overnight delivery is just not fast enough. Speed is of the essence, and a fixed wheel track bike is the perfect tool for the job.

A skilled rider has tremendous control over the bike, able to speed up or slow down easily and thread between cars when traffic is at a standstill. A courier on a bike can get from A to B quicker than any motorized vehicle.

I met Eddie just once when I traveled to New York in November 2014. We met in a bar/restaurant in Brooklyn, where Eddie lived. (Picture above.) He was a big man, at least six-four, maybe more. Soft spoken, humble almost. He showed me his bike, a track bike I had built in 1983, and had been raced on the Trexlertown Velodrome. Eddie had bought the bike from the original owner in 1998.

Then just two months later around Christmas 2014 Eddie’s bike was stolen. Eddie was devastated. He needed this bike to earn a living. I listed the bike as stolen on my Bike Registry, and several months later the frame showed up in a Queens bike store. Someone contacted me, I contacted Eddie, and he got his bike back.

That was the last time I spoke to Eddie just hours after he had retrieved the frame. The parts were gone, but Eddie had other parts and had already re-built it. I asked if he had found the thief.  He replied, “Oh, it was just some young kids.”

This response was typical of the man. He wasn’t vindictive or looking to punish someone, he was just full of joy to have his bike back.

I will always be grateful that I got to meet Eddie, and also with the help of many others was able to get his bike back to him when it was stolen.

I hope that bike never gets restored, but that it remains as is, with its thousands of paint chips. A working bike, displayed in a bike store or somewhere, as a memorial to a Legend.

Rest in Peace Fast Eddie, I will always remember you, as will many more.

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How Fast Eddie got his bike back

Last November I had the pleasure of meeting “Fast Eddie” Williams when I made a brief visit to New York. (Picture above.) Eddie is something of a legend as a bike messenger in New York City.

Eddie has been a bike messenger since 1983. It was a handful of New York bike messengers, the likes of Fast Eddie that started the whole fixed wheel craze that has spread worldwide.

Eddie’s bike was a ‘dave moulton’ custom track frame that I had built in 1983. He bought it in 1998 from the original owner who had raced the bike on the velodrome at Trexlertown, Pennsylvania.

That evening in November when I met Eddie and some of his friends, in Brooklyn where he lives. He proudly showed me his bike, and I realized this was a different kind of relationship between a bike and its owner.

All bike enthusiasts are passionate about their machines, but for Eddie this bright red bike was an extension of the man himself.

This was his working bike, his means to make a living.

Still with the original paint that I personally applied in 1983, now chipped and battered from its hard working life.

But that was fine with me, the bike had character, like the man who rode it.

Then right after Christmas last year, I got the news Eddie’s bike had been stolen. Eddie was devastated. He had left it un-attended for a brief moment and it was gone.

This was almost akin to someone stealing Willie Nelson’s guitar. He had lost his means to make a living.

On my bike registry next to the listing of Eddie’s bike #2833,  I put the words “Stolen, contact Dave.” In red type. I thought the bike might be found quite quickly as it was such a unique bicycle and a very large frame that few could ride.

But it wasn’t found, and the weeks, then months rolled by.

Then out of the blue last Saturday, May 9th. I got an email from a Joe Jameson.

He had seen this red ‘dave moulton’ frame with a $200 price tag in his local bike shop in Queens, NY.

He noted the serial number and went online to my bike registry to check on it.

He saw the “Stolen” tag, and immediately contacted me.

I contacted Eddie and on Sunday he went to the bike shop armed with a copy of the police report that had the serial number on it. I spoke with Eddie Sunday evening, and he was one happy man, he had got the frame back. It had been stripped and the parts gone. However, Eddie had parts and had already built the bike back up again.

I asked him if he found out who stole it, and all he would say is “Some young kids took it.” I didn’t push the issue, all I cared about is that the bike, or at least the frame was back where it belonged. I am glad it was found before some other innocent person shelled out money for it.

I’m glad the “Stolen” tag on my bike registry had worked, thanks to Joe Jameson. Most of all I’m just pleased that Eddie got his bike back.

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Working Bike: Fast Eddie

At the end of September I wrote a piece here about a track bike I built, now being used by a New York City bike messenger. I have since learned more, the bikes owner is Eddie Williams, AKA Fast Eddie.

Fast Eddie has been in the bike messenger business since 1983. Coincidentally the year this frame was built. He and other Bike Messenger cohorts were riding fixed wheel track bikes on the street long before it was fashionable, in fact they were mostly responsible for starting the whole trend.

Eddie has confirmed that he bought the frame from the original owner Jim Zimmerman. Jim had raced it on the track and the colored ribbon hanging from the bike’s saddle is a prize ribbon he had won, and Fast Eddie asked if he could keep it when he bought the frame. It has adorned the bike’s saddle ever since.

These pictures snapped outside Teddy’s in Brooklyn where Eddie now delivers food, presumably fast. Not fast food, but good food delivered fast. The rear fender is a nice practical touch on a rainy evening.

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Working Bike

It gives me great satisfaction to see a bike I built in pristine condition, but there is also a measure of fulfilment when I see one that has obviously been ridden hard and has seen a lot of use. Like this one pictured here.

In the heyday of my custom framebuilding, the years 1982, 1983, and 1984 I built only three of these pure track frames. (One in each year.) They were all actually raced on the relatively few banked velodromes that exist in the US.

No one rode a brakeless, fixed wheel bike on the streets back then, with the exception of a few New York City bike messengers, who started the whole trend.

I built so few that looking through my original frame numbers record book, I can safely say (Even though I don’t have its frame number.) this one was built in February 1983. It is a 61cm. frame, the other two track frames built were a 49cm. and a 57cm. which is definitely not this one. It was built for a Jim Zimmerman, who I seem to recall was a pretty good rider.

It is fitting that this bike is now being used by a Brooklyn, NY bike messenger. My thanks to Patrick Gilmoure who saw it by chance, and managed to snap a few pictures before the bike’s current owner had to rush off to make another delivery. How cool is that? Enjoy the pictures as I did.

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