Travelled from Vancouver to the UK, riding a hardtail mountain bike. A Toby Cycle Works UFO, hand built from Tange Prestige tubing in Vancouver. Full XTR group, Bontrager straight forks. Rode through the British Isles, Belgium, Holland, Denmark. Final stop; Berlin, where I started working as bike messenger.

After working through a minus 20 degree winter it was time for a bike adventure; Berlin to Cairo on the racing green UFO, stopping in Prague, Budapest, Sofia, Istanbul, through Syria, Jordan and Israel en route to Abu Simbel in Egypt. Back to Berlin, flat broke, back onto the courier circuit. Competed in first Alleycat, managed 2nd place!

Started to get deeper into the messenger scene; rode the good old racing green UFO three days from Berlin to Amsterdam to compete in the European Cycle Messenger Championships. Top 100 finish! Won the Berlin Hallowe’en Alleycat!

Took out two other (slower!) riders in the Finals of the ECMC in Graz, Austria. All three of us were taken to hospital by ambulance, but it turned out nobody had sustained serious injuries. Won the Berlin Hallowe’en Alleycat again!

Dustin buys his first track bike, a Ferrari Red steel Cramerotti in Columbus Neuron, from Vancouver. Began riding it ‘on the job’. There weren’t many messengers riding ‘fixed’ in Europe back then. Just James ‘The General’ Moore, Mo (Keirin) and Dustin in Berlin, at any rate. Won the Berlin Hallowe’en Alleycat – but got DQ’ed!

Winner, Berlin ‘Major Taylor’ Alleycat. Began training on the indoor Velodrome in Landsberger Allee; thought I was pretty quick too, until I took part in Berliner Meisterschaft – and got smoked by the big guns! Third place in the ‘Gold Sprint’ and the Alleycat at ‘Metropoloco”, NYC. Made it to the Finals of the CMWC in Philly – until I got detained at a beer checkpoint somewhere along the racetrack! Second overall in first European fixed gear only Alleycat. Modelled for Wheeler Bikes for their ’01 calendar, riding the old outdoor velodrome in Berlin Schoeneberg.