Tool

After reading the article in Dirt Magazine about Chris Mandell and the new Process line-up from Kona Bikes, I came across the following quote from David Attenborough, and found it quite poignant.  The context is Mr. Attenborough's discussion about the Olduvai stone chipping tool, and the relationship between between Homo sapiens and the tools they create.

"This object sits at the base of a process which has become almost obsessive among human beings.  It is something created from a natural substance for a particular purpose, and in a particular way, with a notion in the maker's mind of what he needed it for.  Is it more complex than was needed to actually serve the function which he used it for?  I think you could almost say it is.  Did he really need to do one, two, three, four, five chips on one side and three on the other?  Could he have got away with two? I think he might have done so.  I think the man or woman who held this made it just for that particular job and perhaps got some satisfaction from knowing that it was going to do it very effectively, very economically and very neatly.  In time, you would say he'd done it beautifully, but maybe not yet.  It was the start of a journey." - David Attenborough, A History of the World

It's cool to think about the bicycle this way - not simply as tool comprised of metal and carbon tubes and rubber, but a greater-than-the-sum-of-its parts combination of function, creativity, and artistry.