Nelson Vails, the Cheetah T-Shirt, Dark Red

Ref: TS89R78

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At the beginning of the 80s, Nelson Vails was just a Harlem kid couriering to make a buck on the streets of New York. By 1984, he had left the streets behind, swapped them for the velodrome and had taken silver in the individual sprint at that summers Olympic Games in LA.

To make it from Harlem to the pinnacle of cycle sport takes talent, discipline, willpower and the ability to go like the stink. Vails had all of these. He was given a bike by his older brother at the age of six, and at 21 was supporting his family by wearing the yellow jersey of Cycle Service Center, one of the best messenger outfits in town.

The early 1980s, before the fax machine, was the golden age of messengering. A time when 5,000 messengers ruled Manhattans avenues, and a guy with good legs could make $500 a week, no sweat, and still be at Washington Square Park by 6pm on a Friday to drink beer and party with his fellow messengers. And Nelson, the Cheetah, Vails was the best of the best, commanding the high-paying jobs from one end of Manhattan to the other, because he was reliable and, like his nickname suggests, lightning quick.

'Shit, guys, I was good', remembers Nelson. I was fast. I'd jump on an elevator and it would close right in your face, I would beat the light-beam, and slip right between the doors as they were closing, so that by the time the elevator comes back down to get you I've already dropped off my package and I'm on that same elevator.
He lived the life, but his love of the bike led him to train obsessively, in the early mornings and into the night after a full day jousting with the New York traffic. Then, at the weekends, he'd race and enjoyed kicking your ass at the weekends, he says. 'We'd do the messenger thing, and party till five in the morning at some party or club today they'd call them raves. Then at 6am, I'm on the start line: I win 50 bucks, and go take all my buddies from that party the night before out to breakfast. They're all waiting for me, so I had to win. It was one of those pressure things like, 'You'd better win some money because you're buying breakfast'

The kid was making waves and his raw talent was spotted. At the National Championships he went up against big-name riders and, in his own words, 'blew their doors off'. He progressed to the national team, and travelled to train and race behind the Iron Curtain at a time when very few Westerners were allowed. NeldonI got to see the world through a bicycle wheel, he says. 'How many kids from Harlem get to go and live in Warsaw? To train and race every week in Budapest or East Berlin? Only me and my team-mates, a handful, were able to experience that, and the memories will die with me.

In 1983, he took sprint gold at the Pan-American championships in Caracas, but did not gain a place in the Olympic squad a misfortune that was miraculously reversed when the Russians boycotted the LA Games, freeing up spots for other countries at the key track events. And there he proved himself to the world, coming second only to his fellow American, Mark Gorski.

After the Olympics, Nelson continued to represent his country, notably at the UCI World Championships. He had a cameo in messenger-inspired film Quicksilver, alongside Kevin Bacon, and in 1988 he turned pro, moving to Belgium to make his fortune on the six-day circuit the only American cyclist other than Greg LeMond based there at the time. He also raced five seasons of the Keirin international series in Japan, mixing in the notoriously cut-throat rough and tumble, and making an impression wherever he went for his humility and friendliness.

Yet Nelson never lost his street savvy. 'The whole messenger thing, that New York mentality', helped my whole cycling career, he says, looking back on it all. As far as awareness for racing on the track, as a sprinter, in a tactical game, I was able to maximise it as a messenger. A mass start race on the track, it's like being in NYC downtown, with a bunch of cars and cabs. Its the same concept, so you don't allow yourself to get into a jam.

Nelson has inspired a generation and more of street riders and track fans the world over. We wanted to interview him for our book, FIXED, and finally tracked him down through a Craigslist ad hed placed he was selling a bike. Speaking to him and learning his story was a privilege, and were pleased to have hooked him up with Rich at Urban Hunter, to create these limited-edition prints and T-shirts.

The print, which celebrates his street profile and racing achievements, is designed by Peter Locke for Urban Hunter, and all work was done in collaboration with Nelson.
Max Leonard, co-author of FIXED: Global Fixed-Gear Bike Culture.