1980s London | Riding through London | POV Shots | Dispatch Rider | Another side of London | 1988 

I used to be a dispatch rider. I rode around London like this for 10 years. You get very sharp reflexes after doing this for a while.

I can smell the leaded petrol and I can hear the bustling sounds. I can even smell the rubber and grease on the route masters. Yet I will never be there again.

London from that year seems like yesterday to me and yet it is 32 years ago. Yikes! Another 32 years and I'll more than likely be dead. Life seems to go by so fast :(

I was a despatch rider in London 1989/90. This brings back memories.

Wow, just 4 months before I started my first job at Delta - seems like a different world !

Good memories thank you I did enjoy cycling in London mid 80s wild west!

The Routemaster at 0.14 is still registered lol. Those things never die!

Yup this looks very familiar... including coming up behind the BMW mounted policeman; interesting how the film is cut at that point LOL. The rider here is actually taking it easy, there are keyhole observation opportunities that he is using and holding back where appropriate... so this rider is probably still alive, despite what other commenters have said. I rode like this for around twenty years and I'm still here to leave this comment. ;-)

I used to be a dispatch rider in London at that time on a VF500. Wow. The memories.

Amazing Rover P6

Those were the days. I was out on a VT 500 back then. Hi to all the old despatchers.

Great shots coming down maiden Lane of the lady building on the corner of Bedford Street

At 1.30 you can spot the legendary Marquee Club at 90 Wardour Street; last moments before relocating in Charing Cross.

I despatched for nearly 20 years over the 80s and 90s . I was sure the job would kill me . It was a brutal way to earn a living . My face would be black with lead by the end of a day .

That takes me back, I was a despatch rider for seven years had a great time made a lot of money got plenty of stories to tell. I’ve written a book about it called ‘Circuit Riders,’ should be out this summer.

Wonder what kind of camera set-up was used to capture these shots? Clearly this massively pre-dates the use of Go-Pros and other miniaturised, stabilised cameras - and yet it looks a bit too smooth for it to have come from a guy with a hand-held sitting on the back of the bike.

A few lines of coke and anyone can be Valentino Rossi.

Imagine that now. With all the 20 mph speed limits and cameras.

Wow I enjoyed this. They need to make a game and incorporate this in to i

I worked in London for an advertising agency near Fleet Street.in 1984 (best memories), my first job. I was a foot messenger around Fleet Street. I worked with some motorcycle dispatch riders, all nice guys, but I remembering someone saying the average life of a dispatch rider is 3 years. Not sure how true that was. Paul Hardcastle started off as a dispatch rider

The first-ever Go Pro!

this guy would have had to come off his bike eventually with a major injury or two

When London was good and you could drive now its ruined with 20mph speeds limits and restrictions, ltns, crimes, traffic, too many road work, stupid cycle lanes. And roads are worse then they where before, driving is nightmare in London, parking is expensive and barely any quick stops its hell now they need to bring old London back as its not safe any more nor these new things have improved anything.

Forgot about that company, city link bike near trafalgar sq,.

🏍

Musta been a courier 👍

That's what it was like

Early Gopro...

This would make a good use of my skills but it seems a bit dangerous if you only gonna get paid peanuts

No pot holes back then!

london looks same now as it did back then except for the style of the cars is different

He crashed @ 1:39

RJ.......

It breaks my heart to see what it has become - rivers of blood turned out to be so true

nice Rover P6............funny how the cyclists passes all of them.....

No wonder so many of them became a cropper.

lol All these peeps saying or mentioning "cyclist"... It's clearly not a human powered conveyance being used, but petrol powered...

Mf was lucky they didn’t get knocked off

Back when London was english.

How to drive like a prick in the 80's more like

It can't be London, Too many British people

Hey, theres no stabbings!