By STEVE SIEVERT
Special to the Chronicle

Making a living as a bicycle courier in downtown Houston has become a "hole" lot tougher.

Flexible hours combined with the opportunity to ride a bike to make a buck have drawn many 20- and 30-something cyclists to the profession -- a carefree alternative to the typical eight-to-five grind.

However, construction-riddled roads are making life on the streets of downtown a bumpy ride.

"It's a pretty simple job, but it can be tough on your body," said Carl Gonzales, a five-year bicycle messenger veteran for the delivery company Hotshot. "I'm putting in up to 35 miles a day through all the roadwork, lugging packages that can weigh up to 70 pounds. It can be pretty challenging sometimes."

Gonzales, 30, is one of about 75 downtown bicycle couriers employed by several delivery-service companies. Hotshot has used these two-wheeled couriers for the past 20 years and currently has six messengers downtown.

"Bike messengers make a lot of sense for downtown to downtown deliveries," said Darrell Donaldson, owner of the Hotshot franchise in Houston. "They are able to get around quickly, avoid the parking hassles and allow us to move deliveries faster than by van or truck."

Messengers earn a percentage of the fee delivery companies charge to have packages delivered. The cost runs between $5 and $15, depending on how quickly a package is being couriered.

Making decent money means messengers need to hustle and provide a level of customer service that ensures a return trip.

"Every company's delivery is the most important package of the day to them, so it's critical that the package makes it on time, and that the delivery is confirmed," said Gonzales, who on a typical day makes 25 deliveries and covers ground from the medical center to Allen Parkway.

However, with downtown torn up due to roadwork at virtually every turn, messengers are balancing the necessity of on-time deliveries with arriving at their destination in one piece.

"It's a gamble," Gonzales said. "Riding downtown right now is tough. Some of the temporary street signs are illegible, and you don't know if you're about to make a turn into oncoming traffic. The terrain is also taking a toll on the road bikes a lot of guys use. The bikes just aren't designed to handle torn up streets."

As if constant construction isn't bad enough, Gonzales and his courier comrades have to deal with an anything goes approach among drivers. Some downtown motorists view cyclists as the enemy, even though cyclists have a legal right to their share of the road.

Pedestrians are not always the friendliest of folks, either. Gonzales admitted that couriers can spark this rude reception by weaving in and out of traffic and just missing pedestrians.

But not all couriers are like that.

"We're not all alike," he said. "It's just like looking at corporate America. Obviously not everyone at Enron or Arthur Anderson was involved in scandals. It's the same way with couriers. We're not all rebellious young kids tearing through downtown. Most of us are just trying to make a living like everyone else."