Ride Lugged Manifesto
Starmer wanted controversy. My opinions are so far from the accepted norm that they generally spark nothing but.
I recently read Walter Benjamin’s Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, which you can review at your leisure here. From this I have gained a new language in which to address the reasoning behind why we ride w/ lugs.
-Handmade objects originate in a particular place and time, via a singular or small amount of creators.
-This signals a level of intent on the part of the object, imbued by the object’s author.
-The intent, when realized (crafted into a finalized object), becomes the object’s aura.
-This aura is impossible to achieve via mass production, as there is no sole creator of the work, and therefore no sole intention, or we could perhaps say, soul intention.
-Mass production must invent a false impression of an aura, built around advertising and implied scarcity. The aura is contructed through the supposed cultural identity inherient in the purchase of the mass produced object.
We celebrate lugs because of the aura that surrounds their creation. We realize that all objects are a sum of intentions and compromises. We attempt the least amount of compromise within our comfort ranges as consumers. We must realize that the most efficient way to do something physically in not nessesarily the best thing to do spiritually. We choose our battles, and fight the ones we can fight to the best results.
I think that you are mis-reading Benjamin. He is not nostalgic for the aura of the handmade. He is celebrating the mass-produced as open and democratic allowing for viewer/consumer participation in the authority of the work of art. You should read Barthes “death of the author” for a more contemp. reading on this.
http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/whatis.htm
I really want to understand what a lug is x
While I too am a devotee of the almighty lug, and of the certain artistry evident in the practice of a refined craft, I find that, as it pertains to bicycles, it is far more important to envelope oneself in the spirit of the machine rather than the particulars of its make. It is not unlike the special sense of pride you take in busting your ass up a hill on a beater singlespeed to stay ahead of that guy on the unobtainium spaceship, or towing your bike trailer into Home Depot and loading it up with 2×4s and shingles. The reason we’re on bikes, isn’t because we wanted to ride the neighborhood kid’s work of art. It’s because riding a bike is a spiritual adventure each time your ass hits the saddle.
That said, there must be a reason why my lugged machine gets about eight out of every ten rides I make, despite several other very capable machines in my fleet.
this has nothing to do with spiritual adventure. it has to do with actual aura of whatever that surrounds that which is handmade. of course i applaud all bike efforts, except, in some cases freeriding. this also wasnt a manifesto saying one brand is better than the next, but rather that lugs, and the art of making them, seperates the bikes physically and spiritually.
I’m with L November up there. What is a lug?