Is this just a thing that couriers have, cycling a singlespeed with the super-wide bars and, if so, why?

I would have though that, if you wanted to thread through traffic, having bars that were more normal width would be better than something that means you end up moving around like you are trying to hug a polar bear.

Seems an odd choice true, considering 20 years ago you might have asked:
Q – Couriers – What’s with the track bikes?
A – narrow bars fit between cars betterer

Real answer might be closer to, because fashion.

Wider bars have been used on fixed gears for many years now. They give better control and slow down the steering a bit. Much the same reasons as wider bars on MTBs.

I don’t like them personally and cut mine down to 600mm even for off road fixed riding.

Those aren’t couriers, they’re late to the game #hippsterfixietwats.

Wide bars are a useful MTB thing, so they’ve borrowed it.
Don’t worry next week it’ll be risers fitted upside down with 4″ trimmed from the left side only and the stem deliberately set 9 degrees off to the right, ideally with purple or orange foam grips…

Do bike couriers even exist? Since email came in (and became a legally accepted document) and with anything bigger than a watermelon being better delivered by poor hardworking zero hours men with ven; and given that you also wouldn’t really want them to have anything particularly breakable, or anything highly steal-able like significant amounts of cash.

What exactly is their target market?

Deliveroo?
Although in Leeds those sorts of riders generally have drop bars or mtb style hybrids with with or without suspension forks.

Wider bars are better to a certain extent, I randomly rode an old specialized mtb and the bars were so narrow I felt like I was going to fall off when turning the bars!

Cocaine users?

Cocaine users?

I used to work for a law firm that used cycle couriers…so yes 😀

Up north we have our Charlie delivered by scrotes on 50cc mopeds.

“Do bike couriers even exist?”

I have been a bike courier for 11 years, although I did have a year off when I was overloaded with legal documents and injured my back. I am now working for a visa company so don’t have to carry very heavy things for not much money. Also bought a bike rack for shopping. My bars are quite narrow but still wide enough to have some leverage when the front rack is loaded up. I have noticed the trend for wide riser bars over the last few years. Not sure how they manage to be honest, must be very frustrating.

It just looks uncomfortable when paired with the super-high seat post they normally have too.

Deliveroo (or the local equivalent) seems to be predominantly young recent immigrants on shitty hybrids that seem to think that the reflective jacket makes them invincible, so they do not need to concern themselves with either lights (I type this at 1703 and it is pitch black out and has been dark for nearly an hour) or obeying traffic lights.

Part of me wants to hand out cheap packs of lights whenever I see one of them cycling through town with nothing to make them visible to the hundreds of cars that are just missing them.

when I worked in London all the cycle couriers I used to see and use had narrow cutdown bars.

Those aren’t couriers, they’re late to the game #hippsterfixietwats.

Quite a few round Cambridge, all with bars about 6″ wide. No idea how they manage to control the bike properly…..

The whole playing cards in the spokes thing seems to have died out, a few years back it was almost mandatory…

Round here the deliveroo’s are all on E-MTB’s. I guess there’s a bit of an arms race in that to make any decent money you have to do more jobs than the next person otherwise the next job is already allocated by the time you get back into the town. So maybe that’s a local phenomenon.

As for the question, do cycle couriers still exist. Yes. used to use the motorbike ones all the time when working in TV, someone would always break something or need a spare and driving the van across London is basically writing off my morning/afternoon. So phoning the nearest shop, paying by CC and telling them a courier would collect it in 30 min was a massive time saver.

Biggest extravagance was getting some rolls of (posh tessa stuff) ducktape couriered to where I was. Biggest expense was a motorbike to Cheshire and back to deliver a lapel mic! I did once take a camera to Ft William personally as even in the absence of overtime the 45p/mile on that trip made it a good weekend!

Gives them room to fit their bell.

Oh, hang on…..

Tesla ducktape!!

The whole playing cards in the spokes thing seems to have died out, a few years back it was almost mandatory…

Not really noticed playing cards but but cards from alley cat races and other events were common, whichaee sense if you actually competed in whatever event.

Round here the deliveroo’s are all on E-MTB’s. I guess there’s a bit of an arms race in that to make any decent money you have to do more jobs than the next person otherwise the next job is already allocated by the time you get back into the town. So maybe that’s a local phenomenon.

Also a lot of electric scooter things, look like 125s but battery powered. Normally driven without helmet and without any working lights….