Two long tubes of architectural plans balance on his shoulder as Mikelanjelo Conrad, 29, pedals through downtown on his road bike. A bag full of messages strapped across his chest, he rides past Bush Street on a delivery. While pushing through traffic, a large RV begins to crowd Conrad and sharply cuts him off. Teetering on his bike with one hand he tries to hold on to the rolls with his free grasp. About to fall, he leans his shoulder on the RV, still pedaling, and struggles to regain balance while getting squished between the oversized vehicle and a taxi. The RV halts at a stoplight while Conrad rides on through the intersection at Market Street.

He turns back around to look at the driver and sticks his arm out toward him with his fingers in the shape of a gun and yells, “bang, bang,” to which the man flips him off.

Close calls like this have only happened twice to Conrad, but then again he has only been a bike messenger in San Francisco for a little more than a month. He gets paid about $50 a day for a full eight hours of riding around the city. But he loves it and that’s all that matters.

“Nobody does it for the money, it’s just for the love of riding,” Conrad says.

Riding around the city delivering messages is an old profession, present in San Francisco since 1894. With a gamut of companies and experiences, those who ride claim that once your wheels hit the street you never look back. A hard way to make a buck, those who sacrifice good pay for the autonomy of biking all day admit that it is a challenging job, but worth it in the end.

Luciano Stonza, 20, is into messaging for the exercise and community. Five months strong, Stonza works for Speedway along with Conrad. He really likes hanging with the group of messengers outside of work. A tight-knit community, many of the messengers relax after a long day of riding by grabbing a drink together.

“You get to explore all different parts of the city and see how the entire city works. I’m an observer of society, and at the end of the day I feel like I did a good day’s work,” Stonza says.

After doing migrant work in Hawaii and spending a summer in Maine picking blueberries, Conrad came to land in San Francisco for a wedding last fall. He didn’t have long-term plans when he decided to stick around.

“Maybe I am running away from things, but I can’t stay in one place for too long,” he says.

And that’s why messaging is the perfect fit. Alone cruising the streets, Conrad is active and moving all day. For him the best part is not being forced to sit still or have to deal with a boss breathing down his neck.

Jenny Corredera, 30, gave up making almost six digits a year to hop on a bike for $200 a week. She says it’s the flexibility of the job and the intense community of messengers that provoked her to quit. Corredera is a part of a group of messengers who call themselves “mobile docket clerks,” serving legal papers all over the Bay Area.

Last week Corredera served a man papers to appear in court. He was so mad he started chasing her down the street. She had to hop on her bike and escape his fury. But for the most part, she says, people are not intimidated by her.

Messaging for a year and a half, she is only filling in for others when the need arises for now. Working in the legal sector of messaging is the key to making more money, says Corredera, who finds serving papers for legal communities can produce a decent income.

Corredera thinks it’s a misconception that messengers are riding as a last resort job. She knows a lot of messengers who come from impressive backgrounds. From physicists to architects, an array of people take up a bike and bag for a living.

“We do choose this job, and once you ride the freedom of the road it is so great. I can’t see myself going back to a day job,” Corredera says.

Scott Scott, 41, is not only getting paid to pedal around San Francisco, but is making enough to live in the city. After being a messenger for 17 years, he is able to support a family with his income and still pursue his passion for bikes by working for a legal company. He explains that working for the same company for years has given him the opportunity to get the more expensive “tags,” or messages to deliver.

“It’s all about working your way up in a company,” says Scott as the key to making enough to live in San Francisco. “I plan to be a messenger the rest of my life. Being a messenger gives you life.” He knows two men who are in their 60s and are still messengers, and that is his future plan.

As the president of the San Francisco Bike Messenger Association (SFBMA), Scott is also trying to help messengers find community and support in their field. His organization is focused on helping their workers gain living wages, health insurance, sick pay, vacation and any other rights they believe are due to messengers as a whole.

According to Scott, the business has been cut in half since 1999, when the Internet replaced some messaging jobs. Luckily, the San Francisco Superior Court does not do electronic filing, keeping the legal aspect of messaging going strong.

“There will always be things like original documents and flowers that need to be delivered,” Scott says.

As for the rookie Conrad, he is not always sure what will hang in his delivery bag, but last week he delivered an envelope of Giants baseball tickets for their first game of the season. That day he delivered at least 10 envelopes all around downtown. Conrad assumes it must have been a high player CEO hooking up his clients with baseball tickets, as a thank you of some sort.

The elevator door opens and Conrad, with a sweat-drenched shirt and his helmet still sitting atop his head, approaches the receptionist, who is greeted by his abrupt odor of patchouli. She takes the Giants tickets from his dirty hand, and he dashes off to his next building.

Even as a kid Conrad was taking adventures on his bike. “Rails to Trails” is a path stretching from Pittsburg to Philadelphia that he would ride as an early teen with his friends and brothers. Converted from old coalmines, the path ran next to the Kiski River and the Appalachian Mountains.

Possessed with a passion for adventure and the love of cycling, he hopes to one day ride his bike around the world.

For now, however, he is struggling to make rent and stay on the wet streets of San Francisco pedaling through downtown with someone else’s message in hand. The rain makes riding more difficult, but he says you just have to ride smart and pretend the cars don’t see you.

“I wish I had 24 gears, a bigger bag and better pay,” Conrad says.

He admits there are always parts of life that leave him wanting more. But for now the bike, road and freedom is enough to keep Conrad pedaling fast and looking over his shoulder as he turns the next corner.

CONTACT FAREBROTHER AT SMFARE@SFSU.EDU