The Social Construction of Mountain Bikes: Technology and Postmodernity in the Cycle
Industry
Author(s): Paul Rosen
Source: Social Studies of Science , Aug., 1993, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Aug., 1993), pp. 479-513
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/370257
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DISCUSSION PAPERS
0 ABSTRACT
In this paper, I raise some problems with the Social Construction of Techn
(SCOT): the separation of its first and second stages, dealing wit
technology's development, from its third stage, the wider social context; an
underelaboration of the 'relevant social groups' (RSGs) by which it claim
explain the third stage. By following up Pinch & Bijker's example of the sa
bicycle with a case study on mountain bikes and the technological contro
of mountain bike frame geometry, I show that the third stage is crucia
understanding both the first and second stages. I suggest that the wider con
of mountain bikes is postmodernity, and explore how these artefacts h
precipitated a shift in the cycle industry's production processes from Fordis
post-Fordism. This wider context is then used to understand the soci
construction, not just of the artefacts, but of their RSGs and the relations a
them.
The Social Construction of Mountain Bikes:
Technology and Postmodernity in the Cycle
Industry
Paul Rosen
In their paper, 'The Social Construction of Facts and Arte
Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker introduce the social constru
approach to technology studies (SCOT),' as an offshoot of
Collins's Empirical Programme of Relativism (EPOR).2 To ill
the SCOT analyses, they use the case of the social construction
safety bicycle in the late nineteenth century. Major change
taken place over the last decade or so in the world of bicy
especially since the appearance of mountain bikes in the early 1
These changes point to shortcomings in Pinch and Bijker's analy
framework. In particular, although SCOT looks closely int
workings of technology, its account of society doesn't allow
ficiently complex understanding of exactly how it is that
features come to be built into technological artefacts. Sin
Social Studies of Science (SAGE, London, Newbury Park and New Delhi),
(1993), 479-513
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FIGU
The Safe
Source: Van der Plas,
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 481
publication of Pinch and Bijker's paper, further constructivist studies
of technology have appeared;3 but these works, too, have focused
primarily on the internal workings of technologies, while generally
offering a scant and oversimplistic account of society.
In this Discussion Paper, I intend to use the technology of
mountain bikes as a way of looking at how this imbalance might be
redressed, by problematizing Pinch and Bijker's concepts of stabilization
and 'relevant social groups', and by questioning SCOT's
adequacy in addressing the conflicts among social groups that it sees
as generating technological development. I will also present a macrosocial
account of the wider context of mountain bikes, namely postmodernity,
and thereby hope to throw open the modernity/
postmodernity debate for science and technology studies.
The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)
Pinch & Bijker's exposition of SCOT sees 'the developmental process
of a technological artefact [as] an alternation of variation and selection'
among designs.4 In the case of the bicycle in the late nineteenth
century, many different artefacts coexisted at this time. All of them,
though, held equal claim to the name of 'bicycle'. The question for
SCOT is how this technology became stabilized - that is, how one of
the various artefacts on offer came to be perceived as 'the bicycle',
whilst the other options were abandoned. Pinch & Bijker try to
answer this question by importing into SCOT some of the concepts of
EPOR. SCOT thus follows EPOR in using three stages of analysis:
'interpretive flexibility', where the analyst aims to demonstrate that
there are multiple interpretations of what an artefact is; 'stabilization',
by which the social mechanisms that bring about closure of
this multiplicity are identified; and 'the wider context', linking these
closure mechanisms to their 'wider social-cultural milieu'.5
For Pinch & Bijker, the key to this social process of technological
development is 'relevant social groups' (RSGs). Through identifying
the meanings that various RSGs attach to particular designs, it is
possible to trace the conflicts of interest among RSGs that have led to
the rise of some, and the fall of other, designs.6 As an example, Pinch
& Bijker write that penny farthing, or Ordinary, bicycles were for
young male cyclists 'macho machines' which symbolized virility and
speed. In contrast, for women and elderly men they were dangerous.7
Even a single artefact, then, can be seen as two or more
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FIGURE 2
The Mountain Bike
Source: Kelly & Crane, op. cit. note 18, 6-7.
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 483
different artefacts at the level of the meanings constructed for it by its
potential users.
Stabilization of a technology is what happens when all the problems
attached to an artefact by various RSGs are overcome. The
characteristics of this artefact then come to be 'taken for granted' as
the essential 'ingredients' of the technology. For the safety bicycle,
these features, after a nineteen-year process, come to be low wheels,
rear chain drive, diamond frame and air tyres.8 According to Pinch &
Bijker, three RSGs that were crucial to this stabilization were women,
elderly men and racing cyclists. Low wheels and air tyres solved the
safety problem attached by women and elderly men to high-wheeled,
iron-tyred bicycles, whilst air tyres solved the speed problem that
racers otherwise attached to low-wheeled bicycles. This artefact thus
solved the problems of all three RSGs, and is essentially still the
standard form of racing and touring bikes today (see Figure 1).
An important part of the SCOT programme is the claim that
'[o]nce the relevant social groups have been identified, they are
described in more detail'; we are told, for example, that 'the social
group of cyclists riding the high-wheeled Ordinary consisted of young
men of means and nerve', followed by a list of likely occupations.9 For
Pinch & Bijker, this description belongs within the first stage of
SCOT's analysis, enlarging on the interpretive flexibility of an artefact.
Such elaboration of RSGs also, however, provides an important
link to the third stage, the technology's wider context. Pinch & Bijker
implicitly recognize this in their brief account of the third stage, which
they see as being provided directly by the RSGs: 'the sociocultural
and political situation of a social group shapes its norms and values,
which in turn influence the meaning given to an artefact'.'1 A 'thick'
enough description of an RSG in the first stage would, then, automatically
provide the wider social context of the RSG, of the artefact
itself and of the social mechanisms that shaped it. Unfortunately,
Pinch & Bijker don't provide this thick description." They identify
three RSGs whose interests have decided the shape of bicycles for
almost a hundred years. It is important to understand why it was that
these particular groups, rather than others that Pinch & Bijker refer
to, were the relevant ones. Although women and elderly men made up
over half the adult population, we are told nothing about the social
make-up of these groups, how large a proportion of them were
cyclists, from which social classes they came, and so on. By failing to
provide this information, Pinch & Bijker undermine their claim that
SCOT will give 'more detail' about RSGs.
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Social Studies of Science
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 485
This omission is understandable, given the programmatic nature of
Pinch & Bijker's paper. Underlying it, however, is a failure to recognize
that if the wider context of a technology rests on its RSGs, then
these too must be seen as socially constructed. It is not enough to take
categories such as 'women' and 'elderly men' as unproblematic. The
same applies to the relations among RSGs, which Pinch & Bijker's
account suggests were not completely harmonious. The conflicts that
exist between different social groups are another key to understanding
the social processes that lead to stabilization.
'More detail', then, is crucial for demonstrating the processes by
which RSGs as well as technology are constructed. Otherwise, both
remain decontextualized, with the consequence, as Stewart Russell
points out, that all social groups are regarded as having equal power
and status in society, and consequently equal access to and control
over technology.12 No distinction can then be made between, for
example, 'women' and 'young men of means', although these two
groups clearly have different power and status.
I would argue, consequently, that the distinction made in SCOT,
between the first two stages of a technology and the third, is a false
distinction. Rather, the social context of a technology, identified
through the RSGs, is pertinent to both the first and second stages of
SCOT. In order to understand the full extent to which an artefact can
be seen as a 'sociotechnical ensemble',13 it is necessary to look not just
at the internal dynamics of the technology, but to look at the same
time beyond this to the wider social world in which they are located.
Mountain Bikes: The Social Construction of Clunkers
The case of mountain bikes provides a pertinent opportunity to
develop this critique of SCOT.14 While retaining for the most part the
features of the safety bicycle, mountain bikes challenge the idea that
this design is necessarily stable. Mountain bike design is constantly
changing. My objective in this paper is to show that the changes in
their design bear a close relation to changes in Western society at
large, and thus to illustrate the need for closer attention to the third
stage than is usually given in SCOT.
Mountain bikes differ from the safety bicycles that Pinch & Bijker
discuss on a number of counts.15 They have smaller wheels and fatter
tyres, flat handlebars, gear shifters on the handlebars rather than on
the frame, and a higher bottom bracket. They have cantilever brakes,
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Social Studies of Science
and at least fifteen gears. Mountain bikes have 'slacker' frame angles
and a longer wheelbase than road bikes (Figure 2). For a mountain
bike to withstand regular use off-road, it should also, according to
mountain bike buyers' guides, weigh less than 321b, be made of
lightweight materials,'6 and use a set of components (the 'groupset',
comprising brakes, gears, hubs, bottom bracket and other moving
parts) of a minimum quality (that is, the Shimano '200GS' groupset).'7
Such a bicycle from the 1992 brochures would cost at least
?250.
Mountain bikes were 'invented' during the mid- to late 1970s. They
originated in Marin County, northern California. During the early
1970s, a small group of people began to build bicycles for racing down
Mount Tamalpais. These bikes, known as 'clunkers', were constructed
from frames and components that happened to be lying
around in people's backyards. In particular, this 'clunker group' of
riders used the frames of Schwinn Excelsior bikes, built between the
1930s and the 1950s.'8 The Schwinn Excelsior was a children's bike
designed to look like a car, with a wide frame and tyres, large
handlebars and a broad saddle. Later models even had imitation
petrol tanks and lights moulded into the mudguards. These bike
became the quintessential 'news-boy' bike in America.'9 In the 1970s,
there were still plenty of old Schwinn frames around, and the clunke
group realized that they were sturdy enough to withstand roug
handling on the mountainside.
After a period of experimenting with various components, th
Schwinn frames began to be treated to 'the standard Marin County
conversion'.20 This entailed adding modern components such as 'derailleur
gearing systems ... front and rear drum brakes, motorcycle
brake levers, wide motocross handlebars, handlebar-mounted shi
levers, and the biggest knobbly bicycle tyres available mounted o
heavy ... steel rims' (see Figure 3).21 This resulted in bikes that could
survive what is now an infamous ride in mountain bike folklore, th
Repack run, a steep drop on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais, losin
1300 feet in less than two miles. Riders would be taken up the
mountain in a truck, and would then race down it on their clunkers
The ride was named 'Repack' because it is claimed that by the time a
rider reached the bottom, all the grease in the original back-pedallin
coaster-brakes would have 'turned to smoke', and the hub would
need to be repacked with fresh grease.22
Clunkers exemplify the idea that the design of an artefact draws on
the cultural resources available to its designer.23 The old Schwin
486
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 487
bikes were a cultural resource available to the clunker group, on two
levels. First, they were a physical resource lying around in people's
yards, waiting to be used. Just as important, though, was the meaning
attached to Schwinn bikes by Americans who grew up in the midtwentieth
century. The following quotation is from an American
cycling magazine article celebrating the tenth anniversary of mountain
bikes:
'I grew up with an old Schwinn two-speed', recalls Lou Gonzalez, who promotes
the subsport of Mountain Bike Polo. 'We used to ride around on these forest trails
in Illinois at breakneck speed, trying to kill each other. The first time I got a
mountain bike on singletrack it reminded me of my youth. It brought back that
special time when you didn't have a care in the world'.24
The cultural determination of mountain bikes, then, is able to override
technological considerations. What mountain bikes evoke is for
many riders more important than technical factors. The clunker
group was, then, a relevant social group which constructed a meaning
for Schwinns, and consequently clunkers, that centred on nostalgia.
Mass production of mountain bikes began after 1977, when members
of the clunker group began to build their own custom frames to
improve on the Schwinn design. Joe Breeze is generally credited as
having built the first mountain bike. Tom Ritchey expanded on
Breeze's design, and set up a company called MountainBikes with
Gary Fisher and Charles Kelly. This was the first commercial production
of mountain bikes, in 1979.25 The earliest cycle industry
interest came from Schwinn themselves, aware that the clunker group
was ordering a large number of their spare parts. Schwinn produced
an unsuccessful mountain bike,26 the Clunker Five. It wasn't, however,
until 1982 that mountain bikes took off commercially. In 1981,
Specialized had produced the Stumpjumper, the first mass-produced
mountain bike, manufactured in Japan and based on Ritchey's
design. The Stumpjumper is still part of Specialized's range (see
Figure 4). More importantly, by late 1982, the component manufacturers
Shimano and SunTour introduced groupsets for mountain
bikes; in Kelly's words,
[t]he availability of component groups was the last stage of assembling the infrastructure
necessary for mass production, and from that time forward mountain
bike production swung into high gear, maintaining for several years the highest
growth curve in the bicycle industry. For better or worse, mountain bikes were no
longer a garage industry.27
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FIGURE 4
Specialized 'Stumpjumper'
Source: Specialized 1992 Brochure. Reproduced with permission
Specialized Bicycle Components (UK) Ltd.
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 489
Controversy and Closure: Frame Geometries
A key focus of the sociology of scientific knowledge is the study of
scientific controversies.28 Pinch & Bijker's paper carries this approach
over into technology studies, by focusing on controversies in bicycle
design in the late nineteenth century. One hundred years later, the
development of mountain bikes has again opened up controversies
over the design of bicycle technology which had to a large degree been
closed since the early twentieth century. Mountain bikes are, therefore,
a useful technology with which to follow up, and to scrutinize,
the SCOT approach.
I want to apply SCOT to a technological controversy in mountain
bike design, that of frame geometries. This concerns the angles and
lengths of the tubes that make up a bicycle frame. Small variations in
these are seen to make a significant difference to the performance of a
bike. A 'diamond frame' safety bicycle generally consists of four
tubes - the head tube, the seat tube, the top tube, and the down tube plus
the seat stays and chain stays that make up the 'rear triangle'.
The crucial elements of the mountain bike frame geometry controversy
are the angles of the seat tube and head tube, the length of the
chainstays, and the wheelbase, which is the total distance between the
front and rear drop-outs (Figure 5).
The early custom designers of mountain bikes in California simply
duplicated the geometry of the Schwinn clunker frames. These had
a long wheelbase of about 44 inches, long chainstays of 18.5 inches,
and 'slack' (that is, low) head and seat tube angles: 68? for the
head tube, 70? for the seat tube.29 In comparison, a typical racing
bike might have chainstays of 16-17 inches, a wheelbase of 38 inches,
and steep angles of 73-74? for both head and seat tubes.30 What
the Schwinn geometry meant practically was that the 'California
style' mountain bikes were good for racing fast downhill, but difficult
to ride uphill.3' A slack seat tube angle means that the saddle,
and consequently most of the rider's weight, is further back on the
bike, over the rear wheel. The seat tube is further to the rear of the
bike, meaning that the chain stays need to be longer, to give clearance
for the back wheel's fat tyres. The slack head tube angle pushes the
front wheel further out in front of the bike. Riding fast downhill with
these angles is easy. If the angles were steeper, the rider would be
further forward, and the front wheel would be under, rather than in
front of, the bike, giving a risk of the rider being thrown over the
handlebars.
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490 Social Studies of Science
FIGURE 5
Major Frame Dimensions and Angles
LW- - wheelbase
Source: Van der Plas, op. cit. note 30, 63.
On the other hand, uphill riding is more
forward weight might lead the front wheel to
It also makes it difficult to manoeuvre the front
while going uphill. Uphill riding, then, n
consequently a shorter wheelbase than the Ca
bike. Kelly writes that as soon as this design
other designers quickly began to produce
One example is the 'Seattle style'. This design
terrain of the American Northwest. Riders t
logging country and often riding over sma
needed better control over their bikes than th
We already have then, in the very early days
relevant social groups: downhill riders and
The California-style mountain bike held diffe
group. For the clunker group, the downhill r
suited to their purposes - they themselves ha
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 491
trial and error over some years. For logging country riders, on the
other hand, this technology was impractical, and variations of the
design were developed to cater to their needs.
Each year's new models during the mid- to late 1980s featured
gradual modifications to the frame geometry of mountain bikes,
which eventually stabilized by about 1989 at around 73-74? for the
seat angle, 71? for the head angle, up to 17 inch chainstays, and a 41-
42 inch wheelbase.33 This is considerably steeper and shorter than the
original California-style bikes, but still longer than a typical racer,
with a slacker head angle, though the same seat angle. The
explanation is that the current frame geometry is more versatile,
allowing riders to go both uphill and, with a little extra skill, downhill.
At first glance, it appears that the interpretive flexibility of mountain
bike frame geometry stabilized in a straightforward manner. The
final artefact favours the meanings held by the largest group of riders,
those who ride mountain bikes in a variety of settings, rather than the
meanings of specialist riders such as the two RSGs suggested above.
The question of frame geometry has not, however, been fully
resolved, even though these particular angles and dimensions are now
relatively stable. A further dimension to the controversy can be seen
in the 1992 brochures of some manufacturers. Many models of both
mountain and road bikes now feature 'proportional geometry'. That
is, the same model will have a different geometry for each frame size.
Ridgeback's 1992 brochure explains proportional geometry in this
way:
Larger riders require a shallower seat angle to maintain correct 'knee over pedal'
riding position and use a steeper head angle for sharper handling. Smaller riders
need a steeper seat tube combined with a shallower head angle to achieve the same
optimum pedalling efficiency.
Scott's 1992 brochure takes a similar but more complex approach,
starting from the principle that '[n]o frame design works for every
range of use, and no geometry is correct for all sizes'. Instead of
proportional geometry, Scott uses 'Pro-Spec' geometry, standing for
'Proper Fit for Specific Use'. Pro-Spec aims to 'match every biker's
profile', including a 'Superslope' geometry that 'perfectly fits the
specific demands of the female anatomy'. In effect, Pro-Spec means
that not only do the different sizes of a specific model have different
angles, but each different model across the Scott range has its own set
of geometries, suited to the uses for which the particular bike was
designed. This latter feature can be seen also in the Schwinn 1992
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Social Studies of Science
brochure. Each of the different series in the Schwinn off-road range
has a different geometry: mountain bikes for 'racing' have an 'aggressive
71/73? team geometry'; 'sport geometry' is 70/73?; 'all-terrain'
bikes have a 70/72? 'recreational geometry'; whilst 'cross' bike angles
are 72/730.34
Proportional geometry isn't exclusive to those companies that have
labelled it as such in their brochures. The Dawes 1992 brochure, for
example, makes no mention, in its detailed account of how Dawes
frames are built, of the fact that proportional geometry is used
throughout the range. Nevertheless, proportional geometry represents
a redefinition of the terms of the frame geometry controversy
that appears to have gained acceptance throughout the cycle
industry. I have been told by a mountain bike designer and writer that
'the angles of the frame are actually nothing to do with the performance
of the bike'. They are, rather, important solely in relation to
the size of the rider. The original terms of the controversy, that
different angles affect performance in different settings, have, then,
been entirely dismissed.
This phenomenon is an example of one of the social processes that
Pinch & Bijker identify as bringing about stabilization: 'closure by
redefinition of the problem'. The example Pinch & Bijker give concerns
the rubber air tyre, invented by Dunlop in 1887 as a way of
solving the 'problem' of vibration. Vibration was a problem only for
one RSG, however, the riders of low-wheeled bicyles. It wasn't until
rubber air tyres were found to greatly increase speed in cycle racing
that resistance from other RSGs was overcome. For racing cyclists,
the existence of the technology defined a new problem that didn't
exist for them previously.
In the case of frame geometry, the problem to be solved originally
was one of riding location and style. Proportional geometry has
redefined this as a problem concerning riders' bodies, and their
individual pedalling efficiency. Companies whose bikes are seen to
solve this problem, by means of proportional geometry, have successfully
constructed a market for their products, by constructing
riders into RSGs such as 'larger riders', 'smaller riders', 'aggressive
racing cyclists', 'recreational cyclists' and so on. As Mackay &
Gillespie rightly argue, marketing is a particularly fruitful area for
technology studies to pursue, providing in advertising rhetoric an
overt aim of pushing stabilization in particular directions.35
The interaction that is evident here between design and marketing
strategies is a good example of how entwined technology is with
492
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 493
society, a relationship that runs right through the question of stabilization.
Regular shifts in the meaning of frame geometry suggest that
the technology of mountain bikes will never stabilize definitively.
Although specific features, such as the angle of a particular tube, may
remain stable for a period of time, 'the mountain bike' is continually
changing. As soon as one controversy is resolved, another appears.36
If SCOT is to account for the social construction of mountain
bikes, it will need to explain this constant shifting in their design. This
is not possible, however, from within the confines of the first and
second stages of SCOT, since the explanation lies outside the technology
itself, but rather in the culture of the cycling world, in the
cycling media, and ultimately in the post-Fordist economic system to
which the cycle industry belongs.37 In order to contextualize mountain
bikes, then, I want now to sketch the production practices of
post-Fordism, which promote an incessant pursuit of technical
innovation that opposes the concept of stabilization. The wider
context of a technology is thus not separate from the first and second
stages of SCOT, but something which informs both the range of
artefacts that comprise its interpretive flexibility and the mechanisms
for possible closure.
The Wider Context: Modernization, Postmodernity and Post-Fordism
Cyclists have been riding off-road, and altering the design of road
bikes to do this, since the days of Pinch & Bijker's controversies over
wheel size and air tyres. One of the members of the clunker group
itself, John Finley Scott, built a bike in 1953 which 'in nearly all
respects resembled the generation of off-road bikes' raced at
Repack.38 Scott's 'woodsy bike' was constructed from a Schwinn
World frame, and equipped with 'knobby tyres, derailleur gears, and
upright handlebars'.39 Neither this nor other off-road adaptations,
however, were able to transform the world of cycling or the cycle
industry in the way that mountain bikes have. It is important, therefore,
to ask what is so special about mountain bikes that they, and not
other off-road designs, have become so significant. Charles Kelly
himself asks this question:
As a participant in one of the more far-reaching developments in the field of
bicycling, a development that is in its own way as significant as the introduction of
the chain drive and the 'safety bicycle' to replace the high-wheeled boneshaker, I
still speculate on whether a few of my friends and myself really did influence the
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Social Studies of Science
world, or whether we were just the people who were standing there when the
appropriate forces came together. All of us who participated in the seminal
mountain bike period of the middle seventies are daily confronted with reminders
of our vision and dreams in the form of the mass-produced mountain bike, and still
we wonder whether we did anything or whether it just happened to us.40
To have any chance of answering such questions, it is necessary to
push SCOT a good deal beyond Pinch & Bijker's framework. In order
to understand the social construction of a technology, it is important
first to understand the social construction of its relevant social groups.
Pinch & Bijker's concentration on the micro-level of the technology
itself stops short of this, and their inattention to the wider context
leaves them open to the accusation of technological determinism.4'
The 'wider context' that provides the social construction of
mountain bikes and their RSGs seems to be postmodernity. The state
of the cycle industry both before and since the arrival of mountain
bikes can be explained well by David Harvey's extensive account of
postmodern economics.42 On a cultural level, also, the themes associated
with mountain bikes match many of the key notions of
postmodernism.43 My argument, then, is that mountain bikes are a
technological artefact of postmodern society.
'Postmodernity' is a concept that is contested across various academic
fields, including sociology, anthropology, geography,
philosophy and psychology. I don't want in this paper to engage in
the debate over whether or not postmodernity really exists, or
whether it is just a phase of late modernity.441 want, rather, simply to
present 'the postmodern thesis' as something that may prove useful to
technology studies. What follows, therefore, is not a discussion of
postmodernity, but a sketch of its main features, accepting as given
the assumptions, concepts and cultural phenomena commonly
associated with it.
Harvey argues that it was specific moments of capitalist modernization,
resulting in major social and cultural upheavals, that brought
about the cultural phenomena of modernism and postmodernism
(architecture, art, film and so on).45 He identifies three major periods
when economic crisis caused cultural upheaval: first, the late 1840s,
when an economic depression in Britain swept across Europe, resulting
in the revolutions of 1848, and in the birth of modernism; second,
the immediate post-World War I period, which is generally seen as the
main era of modernist art, literature and architecture; and third, the
crisis in Fordist economics of 1968 to 1973, which for Harvey was the
catalyst of postmodernity.46
494
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 495
The cycle of modernization/economic crisis/cultural crisis derives,
for Harvey, from the 'three basic features of any capitalist mode of
production' that were identified by Marx. These features are that
capitalism is 'growth-oriented', that this growth 'rests on the
exploitation of living labour in production', and that capitalism is
'necessarily technologically and organizationally dynamic', requiring
competitive innovation in both areas. The combination of these three
features embodies contradictions that render capitalism 'crisisprone',
with a tendency towards 'periodic phases of overaccumulation'
of capital, of labour and of goods.47
What distinguishes as special the overaccumulation in each of the
periods Harvey identifies is that in each case it has led to major crises
in the economy, which have then spread through all elements of
society. The extreme nature of these particular crises is related on
each occasion to 'a radical readjustment in the sense of time and space
in economic, political and cultural life.48 The 'time-space
compression' brought about by many of the innovations of these
periods, making geographical and temporal distances increasingly
insignificant, frequently results in a sense of fragmentation and
instability. The result each time has been a 'crisis of representation'
that is manifest in the cultural artefacts of the period - in the
paintings, the literature, the films and so on.49
The crises of the 1840s were linked to the rapid international spread
of industrial capitalism, reflected in the international nature of the
1848 revolutions. Since then, Western culture has seen great innovations
in transport and communications technologies, which have
had the effect of making the world seem to shrink.50 This is, in fact,
part of the social context of the controversies around the safety
bicycle that Pinch & Bijker discuss. Similar changes have come about
in the postmodern period, starting with the collapse of Fordist economic
organization in the 1970s. Harvey describes this era as 'an
intense phase of time-space compression that has had a disorienting
and disruptive impact upon political-economic practices, the balance
of class power, as well as upon cultural and social life'.5'
Postmodernity in economics is intricately tied up with flexible
accumulation in the production process and in labour relations.
Fordism, typified by the business practices of Henry Ford, is characterized
by features such as the mass production and consumption of
homogeneous, standardized goods, and the centralization of production
and of state controls. In contrast, post-Fordist production,
or flexible specialization, features small batch production, responsive
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496 Social Studies of Science
FIGURE 6
'WildelrnaC'
Source: Muddy Fox Brochure, mid-1980s. Reproduced with permission of M
Fox (UK) Ltd.
ig:
5:::f
.i;.:::;:::::?i:::/:;:ii-ijiri::iii
.. : :::::i-:::--::i i--i::--:::-::.-:i:?:`ii-iii::c-::': ::::::_::_ ,?-ii'iiiii'i'iii::ii-9iiiil:i
: ::-:::-:--i:- :::::;:::--:n:ai;-i:i:ci'::i .iillii::i'iiiii:.:i;i
'::'il--:::ii-'-----ii-iii-i:i:-i':-j: ::-:-:-:_ -:::-:i:: i: : ::-:_:i _:-l:::-:':i.?;i--_--::-i:,:is:::: ::::: : :: --------- :
-- :"- :::::-':'::'-:- -':':':---:''-:--::'::'i'i''RFB?:ii:;?i: : ..:.._ :.. :::::::?:._:-:- :ii--:i-::: : ::::: -::::::::::::::::B:il:i'i'ili,l:i::i-ii .: _ :_:i:: ?:::i::::-:--_::i::-:.-?::;I::::::_:-I::-::
: ---i:i:-:;:::-::::- -:-:-':i-::::::: i:iiiiiii::ili;:i-:iksl.:iiiiiiii
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 497
to individualized consumption demands. Production is spatially dispersed,
while state control is flexible and decentralized.52
Flexible accumulation thus works with, rather than against, the
fragmentation caused by modernization. The production of an artefact
can be spread across entire continents, whilst workforces are
increasingly made up of casual and part-time staff. This fragmented
production has come about in response to the depressed world
economy that forms the backdrop of post-Fordism. Competition is a
necessity for business survival. Production needs to be sensitive and
responsive to new opportunities and markets. Product innovation,
cheap locations, short production runs and a fast turnover time
enable companies to cater for 'highly specialized and small-scale
market niches'.53
A fast turnover in production needs to be matched by a fast
turnover in consumption; hence the increasing importance in the last
twenty years of advertising and fashion, of attempts to generate
desire and need among consumers.54 Advertising and fashion are
intrinsic elements of the postmodern. In postmodernity, the images
that sell commodities have themselves become commodified; postmodern
culture is 'the culture of the image or the simulacrum'.55
Simulacra frequently operate at the level of nostalgia. Fredric
Jameson argues that nostalgia films, and contemporary remakes of
old films, exemplify postmodernism. These films, made in the 1980s
and 1990s, but set in the 1950s, operate 'a new connotation of
"pastness" and pseudohistorical depth'.56 In other words, they construct
the past in their own terms, but at the same time claim
authenticity. Jameson terms this feature 'pastiche', a feature present
also in other facets of postmodern culture - art, architecture, music,
and especially urban design. I would argue that these features also
inform the design and use of mountain bikes.
The Social Construction of Mountain Bike Users
Despite the fragmentation of post-Fordist production and consumption,
advertising for its products nevertheless draws heavily on
images such as the nuclear family, nature, scientific progress and
(male) scientific expertise - that is, on discourses of stability. Stability,
and nostalgia for it, are clearly evident in promotional material for
mountain bikes. References to wilderness and to youth are common
themes in mountain bike advertisements (see Figures 6 and 7). At the
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498 Social Studies of Science
FIGURE 7
I:
! 6
RUTTY 4>4//f ,/
THE LAST TIME YOU CAME HOME LIKE THIS YOU GOT SPANKED.
T-HE S .p E :A L ZE; TD Sr T UM!F pJ T P: R'" IS NO O NL L Y ' riORL D'S ,OSCT OPULAR M O U N TA s N
BIKE, iT'S "T'E . SO) tD,'S, BST EXCUSE FOR ACTSING L!KE A KD AGAIN.
SPEtIAULZJ.
Source: 1992 Press advertisement. Reproduced with permission of SBC (UK)
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 499
same time, however, there is also a strong focus on technological
progress and efficiency (see Figure 8). Mountain biking discourse is
imbued with a dialectic of 'fashion and function', which is perhaps
embodied in the growing green consciousness among cyclists - preserving
the planet goes hand-in-hand with a concern for health and
fitness.
These themes locate mountain bike users with the contradictory
terms of what Berger, Berger & Kellner call the 'de-modernizing
impulse',57 a resistance to modernization which is nevertheless at the
same time a product of it. A typical example of this impulse is the
search for wilderness areas uncontaminated by modernization. This
is perhaps the most important theme in mountain biking discourse,
and was the initial motivation of the clunker group who, according to
one writer, were 'a pack of hardcore hippie bike bums' who had
moved from San Francisco into rural Marin County 'to live less
frenetic, more laid-back lives'.58 It is still a prevalent theme, with
articles and advertisements drawing on notions of pioneers, frontiers
and a relationship to nature which seeks at the same time both to
escape to it as a haven from the city, but also to conquer it using the
very technology that drives the desire to escape. Richard Ballantine
writes that '[i]n any activity, there is always an edge of adventure,
always a place where people are wild and free'. In mountain biking,
this edge is 'a line of discovery and testing new limits'.59 The names of
mountain bikes often reflect this theme - Summit, Amazon, The
Edge, Off Limits.60
Nostalgia, too, is a major mountain biking theme, as shown in the
American mountain biker's quotation above, and in Figure 7: the
market for mountain bikes is by no means restricted to children. By
using old Schwinn frames, the construction of the original clunkers
was strongly nostalgic, as well as being practical. They also embodied
Jameson's notion of pastiche. They were a collage, a 'juxtaposition of
diverse and seemingly incongruous elements'.61 They were 1970s
remakes of a 1950s artefact. It is thus the cultural meanings attached
to mountain bikes by their riders that have meant that mountain
bikes, rather than earlier off-road adaptations, are socially a success.
This cultural resonance has in turn provided the market to make
mountain bikes an economic success.
Alongside these de-modernizing themes, however, mountain bikes
are also heavily infused with the very opposite - the advanced technology
which lies at the forefront of mountain bike innovation and
which is central to modernity. While mountain bikers share with
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FIGURE 8
'Technological Sophistication'
&F M~EGA PR~.o:~n ~km brmopno etc *rh (am ezhau~ on ipn wpt~ or1U *btr -w~g O~w? st~la4~d
'eSo" trendieas ir. no -y g? d -dno
t.,Cy ? n? nm) ? rnIQ o -,.k;. .~ t,, .o~ t~ Goc~ bks In fc vo b4f ff that's
V ," P .Y&.dhr. WphW. pht. f 'A " Awkk N- - -io ?o?knt b~?l hot mcwd ...r lyrrr
Anu bk yo. Atp A il'- py h-~ t- pq ..t bp..a .ala*r*tnun -rl? ~Anmw~?i?.o ~ G..God bik-o. 0. f.0 -" 9.W bi U.. tf tht'. c t t and?Wy t
~ur~rrt~l:r*?. 7~:t?. *c??c~xM o ~ -. "uh f-r y- . -. y l M oth- th.pgl th. Mw-t-lorl p-, 4. it to .,
?ct 1W?S?L- .r'tl ~.1 Ihl Dtl(n?. ' *trror;~u~n.
::::,r!! i!?: i! -rr??F
Source: Press advertisement, 1991-92. Reproduced withpermission of.
...???~,Prro~~rr.r??~r*Wi. nM I / to~ll~r*~~ka~o MOW"PrnJhrY I
4.0 t. ft Irl k%* ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* ??. n
:.?rVDfl(~I*F~ -n ?(~*\.bar ~ CO woU R IER M E G A I.- V
rxt.lrulur. w*rrnIl~*lwk SEEKER MFGAdk ltlar?kl~'~OYl
.r+r~ob~~ rYOM*mr SORCERER MEGA? D~~urob
Source: Press adertisement, 199192. Reproduced wth permiss
Muddy Fox (UK) Ltd.I-L II*9WXlm)~)~11 1 1FOl~nY~st
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 501
de-modernizers a desire to escape civilization, they do so in a highly
technological fashion. This has led to conflicts with other groups that
share mountain bikers' rejection of the modernization of the city,
notably ramblers in national parks.62 The latter's objections to
mountain bikes appear often to have more to do with visual and
aesthetic damage than with actual physical damage to the environment.
It is not a belief that mountain bike tyres could do more
damage to footpaths than horses' hooves or walking boots could, but
the incongruity of 'a modern contrivance' in a wilderness area, that
produces 'a deep sense of hatred' at the sight of wheel tracks on the
fells.63
It is ironic, then, that most mountain bikes are used primarily on
city streets rather than on wilderness trails. This reflects yet another
closure by the redefinition of the problem. Just as rubber air tyres
generated and then solved the problem of speed for racing cyclists, so
do mountain bikes solve a problem not previously perceived by city
cyclists - that although they had been riding in cities for a century, the
sturdiness of mountain bikes provides a new, and supposedly better,
means of negotiating over-congested and badly-repaired city streets.
By bringing the tensions between the modern and the countermodern,
between technology and the wilderness, on to city streets, a
central arena of postmodernism,64 mountain bikes are as crucial an
element of the postmodern urban landscape as is architecture. Consequently,
mountain bikers must be seen as a relevant social group
that has been constructed by the same forces of modernization and
postmodernity as the bikes themselves. To make this more clear, I
want now to explore the social construction of another RSG, the
cycle industry.
The Social Construction of the Cycle Industry
The seamless web that centres around mountain bikes - the different
parts of the bikes, the bikes themselves, their history and mythology,
their inventors, their users, the various elements of the cycle industry
- maps on to Harvey's account of postmodernity to an astonishing
degree. Changes in the cycle industry during the 1980s appear to fit
closely the ideal-typical shift from Fordism to post-Fordism, and the
catalyst for this shift appears to have been the appearance of mountain
bikes.
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Social Studies of Science
The British cycle industry was at its peak during the 1950s. In 1955,
over 3? million bicycles were produced, of which almost a third were
sold at home. From the 1960s, domestic production began to decrease
more or less steadily until the mid-1980s. By 1970, significant imports
began to appear in Britain, mainly from the far East, and domestic
sales of bikes increased slowly during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Between 1985 and 1990, however, although domestic production rose
by only 30,000 (from 1,244,000 - the lowest figure since the 1950s - to
1,275,000), imports into Britain increased by more than three times
(from 540,000 to 1,771,000) and domestic sales almost doubled (from
1,514,000 to 2,800,000).65 These changes, both the increased sales and
the transfer of production from home to abroad, are directly attributable
to mountain bikes. In 1988, mountain bikes accounted for only
15% of British cycle sales; by 1990, this was up to 50-60%.66 Mountain
bikes have, then, been the major driving force in the recent
regeneration of the cycle industry.
Mountain bikes have also been central to shifts in the industry from
Fordist production to post-Fordism and flexible specialization. Preliminary
research into changes in the cycle industry since the 1970s
indicates similarities with changes in the culture industries.67 The
example of Penguin Books in publishing seems to offer a relevant
model for Raleigh, the dominant British cycle manufacturer: both are
long-established companies mass producing 'quality' products. Penguin
was rare among publishers in coming early to Fordism, having 'a
distinctive "company culture"', with most aspects of production
carried out in-house.68 With the general shift in publishing towards
post-Fordism, Penguin remains untypical in that it has opted instead
for a 'neo-Fordist' approach, allowing an element of flexibility within
the company, but retaining also a strong degree of integration.69
A brief glance at the organizational structure and approach of
Raleigh, the leading British cycle manufacturer, suggests a parallel
with Penguin. Raleigh's success rests on continual expansion since its
founding in 1888, through a combination of business strategies typical
of Fordist methods. These strategies have centred around 'farsighted,
imaginative thinking and hard work'.70 Raleigh has
throughout its history been close to major innovations in bicycle
design, such as hub gears, small-wheeled 'shopping' bicycles and the
'high-rise' bicycle craze for which Raleigh developed the Chopper in
1969. The company's long-term view is especially evident in its
planning during times of recession, with factory expansion and
automation leading to lower prices. Keen attention to export
502
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 503
markets, diversification into motorized vehicles, and buying up
troubled competitors have also been major parts of Raleigh's strategy.7'
Its Fordist approach to production is underlined by a visit
during the 1920s made by its chairman, Sir Harold Bowden, to Henry
Ford, 'to learn about his production techniques'.72 These were put
into practice immediately following the Great Depression.
In 1960, Raleigh Industries merged with the TI (Tube Investments)
Group, becoming 'the world's largest producers of personal twowheeled
transport'.73 In 1987, TI's cycle companies, the whole
Raleigh 'family', were bought by Derby International, a company
which is now 'the largest cycle manufacturer outside Asia', yet which
has 'no offices or central staff'.74 In 1989, Derby International/Raleigh
held almost 50% of the overall British cycle market, although by 1992
this was down to around 30%.75
Like Penguin, Raleigh's production remains, for the most part, 'inhouse'.
Raleigh is a highly centralized organization, one of the few
British cycle companies with its own design team, building as well as
marketing its own bikes. It has, then, retained its Fordist approach
into the 1990s. At the same time, there are hints that its organization
is shifting towards something like neo-Fordism. Raleigh came late to
mountain bikes, and consequently lacked credibility among the
specialist, as opposed to the mass, market. Its response to this loss of
credibility was the establishment during the 1980s of a well-funded
Special Products Division which demonstrates Raleigh's recognition
of the need to respond to market demand for flexible specialization.
Furthermore, early in 1992, it was reported that Raleigh had signed a
deal with a British designer of mountain bike accessories to act as an
outside design consultant.76
Such examples, and the lack of corporate presence of Derby International,
indicate that Raleigh is moving closer towards exhibiting
'the tension that has always prevailed within capitalism between
monopoly and competition, between centralization and decentralization
of economic power'. This tension manifests itself as an
increased organization of capital by means of'dispersal, geographical
mobility, and flexible responses'.77 Derby International own, as well
as Raleigh, cycle companies and factories in Germany, France,
Holland, the USA, Canada, Nigeria and South Africa.78 In Britain,
the company owns at least five brand names.79
Raleigh's speed at responding flexibly to the changing market, as
well as to its old-fashioned image, has rewarded the company with a
new-found reputation for top quality innovations at the higher price
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Social Studies of Science
end of mountain bikes.80 Utilizing aerospace bonding techniques and
innovative frame materials such as titanium, this Division has successfully
countered Raleigh's image problem, de-emphasizing the
Raleigh logo in favour of the new Dyna-Tech brand name.
Raleigh's moves towards neo-Fordism are untypical of most
mountain bike companies, since few have existed long enough to have
ever been Fordist. Rather, the typical mountain bike company is an
exemplar of post-Fordist methods. It is generally only the older
established companies that build bikes in Britain, using British-made
Reynolds tubing. Aside from Raleigh, these include Townsend and
its subsidiaries British Eagle and Coventry Eagle, Dawes, and the
Elswick-Falcon brands which include Holdsworth, Falcon and
Claud Butler. Very few newer companies have factories in Britain,
especially not those that specialize in mountain bikes. Zinn is an
exception to this, as is Saracen, but the latter in fact imports 'raw'
Taiwanese framesets, which are only finished, painted and assembled
in Britain.8' Most mountain bike companies, rather than building
bikes, 'source' them via a Taiwanese trading company.82 Companies
will specify their requirements to the trading company, who then
submit a design, including tube lengths and frame angles. The trading
company will then obtain the necessary tubing and components from
the various factories in Taiwan. At the most extreme, a British
company might never see a bike until the final product arrives at the
warehouse to be sold.
Mountain bike production is, then, disintegrated and geographically
dispersed. In the words of one mountain bike designer, it
is 'remote control manufacturing'. Manufacturers are 'often little
more than marketing companies with just an office and a phone'.83
Muddy Fox, the company that popularized mountain bikes in
Britain, is archetypal of this approach. Through the 1980s, Muddy
Fox focused on high-profile marketing rather than design, which it
left to its Japanese and, later, Taiwanese trading companies. Its early
success lay less in the quality of its bikes than in its strategic marketing
to a specific lifestyle.84 Its most popular bike, the Courier, was 'a
victory for sourcing and pricing' rather than design.85 What sold the
Courier were 'colour, style and status', exploiting the changing social
trends of the 1980s.86
The tailoring of production to the needs of specialist market niches
is a prominent feature of mountain bike manufacture, and the
development of mountain bikes over the last ten years demonstrates
the proliferation of more and more specialized markets for what
504
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 505
superficially is just one technology. Production for specialized
markets problematizes the SCOT notion of stabilization, because the
nature of capitalist innovation and accumulation works against
stabilization.
Stabilization in mountain bikes has occurred, at a certain level. The
features that distinguish mountain bikes from road bikes that I listed
above continue to hold true.87 However, closer investigation of the
technological details shows constant shiftings in the design of frames
and components which mean that since their inception, mountain
bikes have been moving further and further away from being a stable
artefact. They are in a constant and irresolvable state of interpretive
flexibility. From this perspective, the original clunkers were the only
versions of mountain bikes whose design was relatively stable.
This situation is the reverse of that described by Pinch & Bijker,
where technological developments served to eliminate the problems
experienced by RSGs, until all appear to have become happy with the
same artefact. In contrast, since mass production of mountain bikes
began, the technology has diversified with the appearance of each new
RSG, so that now there is no longer just one 'mountain bike'; rather,
there is a different artefact for each RSG, and there appears to be no
prospect, need or desire for the stability Pinch & Bijker describe.
Transformations in Western society since the late nineteenth century
are such that it is now possible, and even necessary, to have a limitless
variety of bicycles, and of mountain bikes, available. Greater numbers
of people can now afford bicycles, which are more and more used for
leisure rather than transportation. As uses for bicycles diversify, so
the number of RSGs increases, with each new RSG demanding a
different technological artefact, albeit still called a 'mountain bike'.
The social processes that Pinch & Bijker claim bring about stabilization,
then, in fact lead to greater diversity. The redefinition of the
problem that sees mountain bikes as ideal for city riding has not
resulted in their design moving uniformly towards city use. Rather,
companies generally now produce three or four different ranges of
mountain bikes meeting the needs of the different RSGs: for their
original rough stuff use; for racing; for city riding; and now, multipurpose
'hybrid' or 'cross' bikes, combining features of both mountain
and road bikes. Within these different ranges, specific models
cater for more specialist requirements, as exemplified in Scott's ProSpec
frame geometries described above.88
It may be that mountain bikes are actually still in a state of
interpretive flexibility, and that with time, they will come to stabilize.
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Social Studies of Science
FIGURE 9 FIGURE 10
Brazed Lug TIG Weld
*f..
Source: Both from Van der Plas, op. cit. note 30, 67.
Hindsight would then allow an analysis of mountain bike development
that more closely resembles Pinch & Bijker's account of
safety bicycles. I cannot, of course, discount this possibility. The
question of hindsight, however, must be balanced against understanding
fully the detailed unfolding of a technological development.
The events that comprised the 'invention' of the safety bicycle in the
1880s were still in dispute as late as 1900.89 By the time Pinch & Bijker
were writing in 1984, they seemed more clearly defined. My account
of mountain bike development is, then, only one version of the story,
which hindsight will no doubt come to modify. Greater distance from
the events will always make an artefact look more stable. However,
this will also black-box the technology, along with its RSGs and the
relations among them. Hindsight has both advantages and
disadvantages.
Technological (Cycle) Frames
To stick with the present versions of the story, transferring mountain
bike production to the Far East has brought with it a shift in the
'technological frame' associated with bicycle manufacture, a shift
that has been crucial in enabling the high degree of product differentiation
among mountain bikes. Bijker defines a technological frame
as 'a combination of current theories, tacit knowledge, engineering
practice (such as design methods and criteria), specialized testing
procedures, goals, and handling and using practice'.9
506
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 507
Proportional geometry, and the yearly shifts in frame angles until
they stabilized, are not easily compatible with the traditional style of
frame building in Britain. The tubes of British-made cycle frames
tend to be brazed together at the ends, inside lugs (see Figure 9). The
tubes are joined by melting between them a material, typically brass,
with a lower melting point than the steel of the tubes. It is difficult with
lugged frames to vary the angles, as lugs are mass-produced at a fixed
angle. Only a large demand for a specific frame angle would justify the
cost of changing the settings on the lug-casting equipment. It is no
surprise, then, that the only mountain bikes built with lugs come from
the long-established companies with their own factories, using traditional
construction methods to produce large numbers of bikes:
Raleigh, Dawes, Townsend, British Eagle, Claud Butler and the
American company Trek.
In contrast, even the British-built Zinn mountain bikes are 'TIGwelded'.
This is by far the most common joining method for mountain
bikes, particularly since production moved predominantly to
Taiwan. With TIG-welding, the tubes themselves are welded directly
together, using a tungsten welding element to prevent corrosion, and
a blanket of inert gas to prevent oxidization (see Figure 10).91 This
method allows a far more flexible approach to frame angles, enabling
the industry to cater to more specialized demand. A further feature of
the Taiwanese technological frame, the use of new technology, also
contributes to this. Computerization has shortened the design process
from a few days to a few minutes. It is no problem, therefore, for
a factory to produce, relatively quickly, short runs of a large number
of different designs.
The growing importance in mountain bike production of nontraditional
technological frames is thus a central factor in the shift
from Fordism to post-Fordism. It might even be generally the case, as
it is here, that shifts in technological frames reflect broader cultural
shifts. The shifts in Western culture towards postmodernity that are
embodied in mountain bikes form the backdrop of a transformation
in the cycle industry comprising not just an economic revival, but a
significant shift in the structure of power relations within the in-
dustry.
Writers using SCOT are beginning to provide more elaboration of
their RSGs. For example, Bijker explores the ways in which fluorescent
lamps were socially shaped through the 'social interactions'
among the RSG he describes - the Mazda companies that manufactured
most of the lamps, other lamp manufacturers, the electricity
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Social Studies of Science
utilities, the light fixture manufacturers, customers and the government.92
Bijker explicitly resists the use of RSGs as a means of
'imputing hidden interests to social groups',93 but in doing so he also
underplays the possibility that there exist not-so-hidden interests
which can give rise to conflict among RSGs and affect the shaping of
an artefact.
The example of mountain bikes shows that even where 'interests'
aren't stated by the RSG concerned, these do not have to be imputed
by the analyst. It is sufficient simply for other actors to perceive hidden
interests for this to shape the meanings they construct for an artefact.
British cycle production is no longer straightforwardly controlled by
manufacturers in Britain. Control, along with production, has been
fragmented among the manufacturers, the Taiwanese sourcing
agents, and the component giant Shimano; the latter is in fact
perceived by many as controlling the whole industry.94 The dynamics
of this changing relationship within the cycling world, and of the
changing technological frame, are something that must inevitably
remain beyond the grasp of SCOT as it currently stands.
Conclusion
Pinch & Bijker's original exposition of SCOT includes the objective
of bringing together the micro-level of the technological content of
artefacts with the macro-level of the wider society in which these are
located.95 Ironically, the SCOT framework obstructs this possibility
by establishing an untenable distinction between the micro and the
macro - that is, between a technology's interpretive flexibility and the
mechanisms of its stabilization on the one hand, and its wider social
context on the other.
With the case of mountain bikes, I have indicated a number of
implications this approach has for our understanding of the social
shaping of technology. First, by seeing the third stage as work for the
future, SCOT's explanatory power remains too strongly rooted in the
internal workings of technology; it doesn't explain the social aspects
of technological development as richly as the technological aspects.
Second, despite holding up relevant social groups as the agents of
technological change, few studies give a detailed enough account of
RSGs to justify this claim. It isn't sufficient simply to name 'women
cyclists' and 'elderly male cyclists' as relevant groups: their relationship
to the artefact must be elaborated more fully if their ability to
508
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 509
effect change is to be convincing. Third, the relationship of RSGs to
each other must also be explained; if the wider context derives from
the RSGs, then the relations among them are the social arena within
which the technology is constructed.
Finally, the notion of stabilization in SCOT needs more attention.
As a start, further research from within the 'new sociology of technology'
perspective could be undertaken on the distinction between
Fordism and post-Fordism, using artefacts other than bicycles. This
would also be a way of assessing how valid it is to introduce concepts
such as postmodernity from the field of cultural studies into technology
studies. Once such problems have been addressed, it may then
be possible more fully to articulate ways in which social relations are
built into the very design of an artefact.
* NOTES
This paper grew out of discussions with the Mike Michael on various issues related
technology. I would like to thank Maria Thomas for regular help in shaping m
thoughts and improving my writing, and Mike Michael, Brian Wynne, Jon Purki
Peter Hughes, John Wakeford, Trevor Pinch, Peter Simmons, Stewart Russell, Sco
Lash and four anonymous referees, for comments on earlier drafts of the pape
Thanks are also due to Hilton Holloway for insights into the workings of the cycl
industry; Lisa Warburton of the Cyclists' Touring Club for help and information
finding material; Tom Cahill for the loan of mountain bike magazines; and Sam Dixo
for his paper on mountain bikes.
1. Trevor J. Pinch and Wiebe E. Bijker, 'The Social Construction of Facts and
Artefacts; or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might
Benefit Each Other', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 14 (1984), 399-441.
2. H.M. Collins, 'An Empirical Relativist Programme in the Sociology of
Scientific Knowledge', in Karin D. Knorr-Cetina and Michael Mulkay (eds), Scien
Observed: Perspectives on the Social Study of Science (London: Sage, 1983), 85-113.
3. For example, Wiebe Bijker, 'The Social Construction of Bakelite: Towards a
Theory of Invention', in Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes and Trevor Pinch (eds), The Socia
Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of
Technology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987), 159-87; Bijker, 'The Social
Construction of Fluorescent Lighting, or How an Artifact Was Invented in Its
Diffusion Stage', in Bijker and John Law (eds), Shaping Technology/Building Societ
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992), 75-102; Boelie Elzen, 'Two Ultracentrifuges:
Comparative Study of the Social Construction of Artefacts', Social Studies of Scienc
Vol. 16 (1986), 621-62; Thomas J. Misa, 'Controversy and Closure in Technologic
Change: Constructing "Steel"', in Bijker & Law (eds), op. cit., 109-39.
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Social Studies of Science
4. Pinch & Bijker, op. cit. note 1, 411.
5. Ibid., 409.
6. Ibid., 416.
7. Ibid., 423.
8. Ibid., 416.
9. Ibid., 415.
10. Ibid., 428.
11. This is not a criticism that holds for subsequent work in SCOT. Bijker (1992)
and Misa, op. cit. note 3, both describe their RSGs in some detail.
12. Stewart Russell, 'The Social Construction of Artefacts: A Response to Pinch and
Bijker', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 16 (1986), 331-46.
13. John Law and Wiebe E. Bijker, 'Postscript: Technology, Stability and Social
Theory', in Bijker & Law (eds), op. cit. note 3, 290-308.
14. The empirical material in this paper draws on unfinished fieldwork in the cycle
industry. This includes interviews with mountain bike riders, designers and manufacturers,
independent framebuilders, bicycle technologists and retailers, as well as
company brochures, cycling and mountain biking magazines, and archive material on
the Raleigh cycle company. Uncredited quotations are from my interview data.
15. Mountain bikes are also known as 'All-Terrain Bikes' (ATBs) and 'off-road
bikes', as well as 'MTBs' (MounTain Bikes). Racing, touring and sports bikes are
generally referred to by mountain bikers under the blanket term of road bikes.
16. Frame materials are one of the major areas of technical innovation in mountain
bike design, lightness being considered a crucial feature. It is now common practice for
new materials, often from the aerospace industry, to be tested by using them in bicycle
frames. While steel remains the most common frame material, there are mountain
bikes built of aluminium, magnesium, carbon-fibre, titanium, and most recently Metal
Matrix Composites (MMCs).
17. Shimano groupsets referred to in this paper are from their 1992 range.
18. Charles Kelly, in Kelly and Nick Crane, Richard's Mountain Bike Book
(London: Pan, 1990), 21.
19. Iain Lynn (ed.), The Off-Road Bicycle Book (Hawes, North Yorkshire: Leading
Edge Press, 1989), 7.
20. Kelly, op. cit. note 18, 29.
21. Ibid., 21.
22. Ibid., 22.
23. Michael Mulkay, Science and the Sociology of Knowledge (London: George
Allen & Unwin, 1979).
24. Quoted in Scott Martin, 'Mountain Biking Turns 10', Bicycling, Vol. 30, No. 9
(October/November 1989), 39-44, at 41.
25. Kelly, op. cit. note 18, 50-51.
26. Commercially and, from the clunker group's point of view, technologically,
'unsuccessful'.
27. Kelly, op. cit. note 18, 55.
28. H.M. Collins (ed.), Knowledge and Controversy. Studies of Modern Natural
Science, Special Issue of Social Studies of Science, Vol. 11, No. 1 (February 1981), 3-158.
29. Kelly, op. cit. note 18, 90.
30. Rob Van der Plas, Bicycle Technology. Understanding, Selecting and
Maintaining the Modern Bicycle and its Components (San Francisco, CA: Bicycle
Books, 1991).
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 511
31. Kelly, op. cit. note 18, 90.
32. Ibid., 91.
33. Tom Bogdanowicz, 'Mountain Bikes - Set to Dominate Cycling', in Lynn (ed.),
op. cit note 19, 104-10, at 104.
34. The first angle given is for the head tube, the second for the seat tube.
35. Hughie Mackay and Gareth Gillespie, 'Extending the Social Shaping of
Technology: Ideology and Appropriation', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 22 (1992),
685-716. This point is also touched on by Pinch & Bijker, op. cit. note 1, and explored
in more depth by Ruth Schwartz Cowan, 'The Industrial Revolution in the Home', in
Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman (eds), The Social Shaping of Technology
(Milton Keynes, Bucks. & Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press, 1985), 181-201.
36. This constant shifting in the meaning of technological features recalls Derrida's
notion of difference. Derrida argues that meaning is never fixed, but only temporary.
The concept to which words such as 'mountain bike' are attached is constantly
changing. See Jacques Derrida, Writing and Diference (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1978).
37. It would be valid to argue that post-Fordist economics should be differentially
applied to different types of industry. Except for questions of safety, the cycle industry
in the West is left largely to the 'free market', unhindered by state intervention. The
applicability of a post-Fordist analysis to other types of industry would need separate
research; for example, state monopoly industries or industries whose products are
affected by environmental regulations are subject to more constraints than simply 'free
market' economics.
38. Kelly, op. cit. note 18, 27.
39. Ibid., 27, 60.
40. Ibid., 15.
41. Russell, op. cit. note 12, 337.
42. David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989).
43. Ibid.; Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late
Capitalism (London: Verso, 1991).
44. See Harvey, op. cit. note 42, for some of the issues involved in this debate, and
Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991).
45. This Marxist perspective, assuming that the base determines the superstructure
in the final analysis, begs the question of what it is that causes modernization in the first
place. An alternative perspective can be found in Dan Shapiro, Nick Abercrombie,
Scott Lash and Celia Lury, 'Flexible Specialisation in the Culture Industries', in Huib
Ernste and Verena Meier (eds), Regional Development and Contemporary Industrial
Response: Extending Flexible Specialisation (London: Belhaven, 1992), 179-94.
Shapiro and his colleagues, writing about the culture industries, argue in contrast to
Harvey that the 'expressive revolution' of the 1960s was a major source of changes in
the record industry, that is, that 'an economic phenomenon ... was arguably in large
part a product of cultural causation'. It would, of course, be possible to argue
indefinitely between these two positions, citing cultural and economic changes each in
turn as having caused the other. That argument belongs elsewhere, though.
46. Harvey, op. cit. note 42, 260ff.
47. Ibid., 179-81.
48. Ibid., 260-61; Giddens, op. cit. note 44.
49. Harvey, op. cit. note 42, 260.
50. Ibid., 264.
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Social Studies of Science
51. Ibid., 284.
52. Ibid., 175-79, referring to Lash & Urry, and to Swyngedouw.
53. Ibid., 156.
54. Ibid., 285ff.
55. Jameson, op. cit. note 43, 5.
56. Ibid., 20.
57. Peter L. Berger, Brigitte Berger and Hansfried Kellner, The Homeless Mind:
Modernization and Consciousness (Harmondsworth, Middx: Pelican, 1974), 178. This
book pre-dates the advent of postmodernity. However, considering the common view
that postmodernity is simply an intensification of modernity (e.g. Harvey, op. cit. note
42), it provides valuable insights into the changes in the construction of identity that
result from modernization.
58. Richard Grant, 'Foreword' to Kelly & Crane, op. cit. note 18, 10.
59. Richard Ballantine, 'Pioneers Meet People-Pressure', New Cyclist, No. 17
(November/December 1991), 21.
60. The first two are made by Raleigh, the others by Dawes.
61. Harvey, op. cit. note 42, 338; the bike building methods of the clunker group
also call to mind Levi-Strauss's account of the 'bricoleur', who unlike the more
disciplined engineer, works with 'whatever is at hand': see Claude Levi-Strauss, The
Savage Mind (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972), 17. Mountain bikes are, then, a
piece of 'bricolage'.
62. For the Lake District example, see John Wyatt (ed.), 'Report of the Adventure
and Environmental Awareness Group Conference on Mountain Biking and the
Environment' (Charlotte Mason College, Ambleside, 8 February 1992).
63. Joanne Colley, 'An Unnecessary Contrivance or a Versatile Leisure Machine?',
Westmorland Gazette (21 February 1992), 11.
64. Harvey, op. cit. note 42.
65. Bicycle Association of Great Britain, 'Cycling - the Current Market' (1991), 6.
66. Ibid.
67. Shapiro et al., op. cit. note 45.
68. Ibid., 182.
69. Ibid.
70. Gregory Houston Bowden, The Story of the Raleigh Cycle (London:
W.H. Allen, 1975), 104.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid., 63.
73. Raleigh Industries, 'Raleigh Through the Years' (n.d.).
74. Ethical Consumer, No. 6 (February/March 1990), 19.
75. Cycle Press, No. 75 (January 1993), 5.
76. Mountain Biking UK, Vol. 5, No. 4 (April 1992), 32.
77. Harvey, op. cit. note 42, 159; a contrasting position can be found in Scott
Lash and John Urry, The End of Organized Capitalism (Cambridge: Polity Press,
1987).
78. Nick Garnett, 'Flat Out in Pursuit of the Yellow Jersey', Financial Times (4
October 1989), 25.
79. Ethical Consumer, op. cit. note 74, 22.
80. 1992's suspension mountain bike, the Raleigh Activator, may have lost the
company some of this reputation. The Activator is considered by few in the mountain
biking world as a 'true' mountain bike.
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Discussion Paper: Rosen: Social Construction of Mountain Bikes 513
81. This discussion excludes independent custom framebuilders, who generally use
either Reynolds or the Italian Columbus tubing, but account for a very small part of
the cycle market.
82. Until the mid-1980s, Japan rather than Taiwan dominated this side of the
industry, and China is now beginning to make headway; see Kevin Rafferty, 'Bicycle
Plant in Van of New Model Army', Guardian (15 August 1992), 32.
83. Ethical Consumer, op. cit. note 74, 18.
84. Jay Rayner, 'Of Lycra Cycling Shorts and the Wheels of Fashion', Independent
on Sunday (15 March 1992), 22.
85. Hilton Holloway, Bicycle (June 1992), 16.
86. Rayner, op. cit. note 84.
87. As Trevor Pinch says, 'I know nothing about mountain bikes but I can tell one
when I see one', personal communication.
88. As evidence that the earliest RSGs still exist, Pace Research, a producer of topof-the-range
mountain bikes and components, has produced a ?4000 prototype bike
designed solely for going downhill, although the mass market appeal of such a bike is
now minimal: see Bob Allen, 'Dream Demon', Mountain Biker International (August
1992), 22-24.
89. Derek Roberts (ed.), 'The Invention of the Safety Bicycle, Correspondence in
the Weekly Magazine Cycling from 1 September 1900 to 15 December 1900'
(Mitcham, Surrey: privately published, 2nd edn, 1990).
90. Bijker (1987), op. cit. note 3, 168.
91. Van der Plas, op. cit. note 30, 56. 'TIG' stands for 'tungsten-inert-gas'.
92. Bijker (1992), op. cit. note 3.
93. Ibid., 77.
94. See, for example, 'Only Your Product Manager Knows for Sure', Mountain
Bike Action, Vol. 6, No. 8 (August 1991), 94-108.
95. Pinch & Bijker, op. cit. note 1, 431.
Paul Rosen is researching the sociotechnology of the cycle
industry at Lancaster University's Centre for Science Studies
and Science Policy. Other interests include technology and the
environment, the music industry and technology, and
'alternative technology'.
Author's address: School of Independent Studies, Lancaster
University, Lancaster LA1 4YN, UK.
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