ABSTRACT
Research has focused on cycling for transport, with a particular attention to commuting. Interest in work amongst cycling researchers was tangential: it focused on cycling as means to access work rather than work per se. Authors of cycle messenger literature focused on subcultural identities and lifestyles, while actual working conditions and labor struggles were not an issue. Throughout history, the bicycle has found itself at the intersection of work and play. In the age of mass automobility, reliance on cycles for everyday commuting and transport diminished drastically. The emergent gig economy has taken advantage of the bicycle and its versatile role for both work and play. The bicycle is essential to the prosperity of these platforms; it provides affordable access to a job to anyone who knows how to use it, as well as easily mobilizing a pool of cheap labor for transnational capital.
