The Myth of the Repack Group: Some Problems and Provocations from an Actor-Network Perspective

Abstract

This article problematises heroic models of innovation which advocate the definitive, isolated and anthropocentric origins of the mountain bike. It argues that such heroic models represent a particular kind of myth in which technology, as manifest in the reconstructionist history of the Repack group, is said to represent the human ability to domesticate nature and transform it into objects of utility. In light of the work of Latour, I (re)evaluate phenomenological and subcultural claims regarding the relationship between riders and bikes, arguing that neither is sufficiently able to grasp the complex bonds that are formed between human and nonhuman entities. In contrast, it is concluded that the mountain bike is a collective and continual achievement performed within a wider assemblage comprising a series of heterogeneous actants, thus contributing to a growing body of work that focuses on the more-than-human aspects of leisure.