Steve, Author at Nomadic Research Labs

THIS high-tech bike is home for traveling writer Steve Roberts. It has five computers, a satellite transceiver, two ham radios, a cellular phone, security system, refrigerator, fax unit, microfiche library and TV set. Steve runs his gadgets with solar power and uses the bike’s 36 gears to haul a 4-ft. trailer. He and galpal Maggie Victor, who has her own bike, rode 6,000 miles…

Steven Roberts, author of Computing Across America, has traveled across the United States on his “Winnebiko II,” a 54-speed recumbent bicycle equipped with a cellular phone, a modem, a ham radio station, a fax machine, a TV set, CD ROM navigation libraries, a satellite earth station, a 286-based computer with more than 4 megabytes of RAM,…

by Steven K. Roberts Milpitas, California May 6, 1989 Somebody on the Net recently asked me what my days are like. The popular image, I’m sure, is of a bustling Winnebiko lab with scurrying white-coated technicians fitting glittering surface-mount subassemblies onto a frame of high-tech composites and tightly laced bundles of optical fiber and coax. Surrounded…

This epoch of the BEHEMOTH project included obsessive involvement in packet radio, and I spoke at a meeting of interesting people… PPRS Meeting Announcement PPRS meets the first Tuesday of the month at the Ampex Cafeteria located at 411 Broadway, Redwood City. The May meeting is on the 2nd and the speaker will be Steve…

American Society of Mechanical Engineers Mt. Diablo Section Home, Home on the Road, with Steve Roberts(High-Tech Nomad) and his Winnebiko Presented by Steve Roberts, Author, Computing Across America Question: What has five computers, 54 speeds, a cellular phone with modem, a ham radio station, a motion-sensitive security system, speech synthesis, 5 solar panels, hydraulic and…

By 1989, the idea of escaping the office and working at home was becoming quite the meme, sparking articles like this one in mainstream publications. I’m only including the text of the small part that discusses my bike, as well as the photo above (click page images to read full article). by John Schwartz…

Presentation with Winnebiko II on stage Computing Across America SVCS April 1989 meeting Techmart in Santa Clara, California April 12, 1989

This brings back fond memories. I loved HSC, and it was always the first go-to resource for the kinds of Silicon Valley treasures that made the BEHEMOTH project possible. They soon became a sponsor, and over the years I would drop by, load up my cart with goodies, catch the old surplus buzz, run into…

Filmed near Milpitas, California NHK March 24, 1989 (aired in June) This segment was part of a larger show that focused on emerging network communications, during a time when there was just beginning to be a transition between isolated online services and the then-embryonic Internet. I had recently completed the second phase of the bicycle…

This relic from 1989, early in the BEHEMOTH project (before it was called that), came to my attention exactly 30 years later thanks to Paul Schleck who alerted me to the website that is replaying usenet. At this moment in my life, I was fully immersed in the third bike version, at once thrilled and…

Posts by Steve

The Bike that has Everything – Globe

On the Road with Laptops and Cellulars – InfoWorld

Standing in the Window

Pacific Packet Radio Society

Winnebiko II at ASME Dinner

Escape from the Office – Newsweek

Silicon Valley Computer Society talk – SVCS

Halted Specialties Sponsorship

Winnebiko II on NHK – Japan

The Winnebiko III Project Needs YOU