Skip to main content
Jimmy John's bike courier Taylor Eisele moved from Eugene to immerse himself in Portland bike culture by peddling sandwiches.
Riding 300 miles a week on average, he delivers up to 36 sandwiches at a time around the Lloyd Center and thrives on a diet of beer and discounted subs.
Filmmaking is new for Eisele. The short film "Keep Going," which he made with buddy and fellow courier Tim Jacks, will screen at the Filmed by Bike Festival this Saturday. The exposee doc is also up for the $100 Local Award—that's roughly 17 8-inch subs.
Before his debut, Eisele talked to WW about ice tires, the internal politics of Jimmy John's and how to bungee 20 drinks to a bike.
Willamette Week: How did you get into the bike courier industry?
Taylor Eisele: I was already working at a Jimmy John's in Eugene and I just called up one day on a whim. One of the Portland franchises had an opening and I was up here 3 weeks later.
The plan was to get super into biking, but I didn't realize I'd be working 30 to 35 hours a week, doing 300 miles a week.
How do you sustain that?
I eat all the time, 24/7. I can eat five pounds of food a day and still lose weight. It's amazing how much you can get from beer. At the downtown Jimmy John's, they gave me free food, but they get less business and tips. That's the trade. It's still discounted at the other franchises. I exist off a diet of sandwiches and beer.
What crazy orders do people around Lloyd Center make?
We'll take platters and platters to the Moda Center. My biggest order today was 36 sandwiches, probably 4 dozen bags of chips and 20 drinks. I put all the drinks in a box, filled it with kitchen aprons so they didn't jiggle around, put the chips on top of that and the sandwiches in a box on top of that. Then I took six or seven bungee cords and strapped it all to a basket.
How is delivering in Portland different than Eugene?
It opened my eyes to how bad drivers can be. Last October, I got taken out by a pickup truck, fractured part of my wrist and was out of work. When you're paid to ride your bike and you get taken out, you lose a lot of money. It's always the right turn, too. Nine times out of ten, people get you at the right hook.
You say you raked in "hours and hours and hours of footage" for the 7-minute film. What didn't make the cut?
The day Portland froze over, we took our bikes out on the ice just for fun. We crashed a lot, bloodied up a bit and it was great. We were trying to see if we could slide down a hill without doing anything.
Did you have special equipment for days like that?
You just need zip ties. If you put the lock part [of the zip tie] at the bottom of the tread, it sticks into the ice and breaks it up. It works just like spikes.
GO: Keep Going screens at Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-493-1128, 6 pm Saturday, May 7. $ 11. Filmed by Bike runs May 6-8. filmedbybike.org.
Willamette Week