Steve, Author at Nomadic Research Labs

During our travels around the US in 1988, we passed through Charlotte… where we not only did a bit of media but also launched a consulting relationship with Hand Held Products. This is the newsletter of the local bicycle club… Tarheel Cyclists Crank Mail Charlotte, North Carolina May, 1988 “High Tech Nomad,” Steven Roberts, pedaled into…

It was fun to see how the “mainstream” cycling community reacted to my machines… for folks cognizant of every ounce, the gizmological excesses of Winnebiko II and BEHEMOTH (which Bicycling covered in more detail 3 years later) must have seemed absurd. The press was generally kind, though; it was good PR for bicycle touring, and…

This was a fun article, though I have to wince a little at the tale on the first page in which I recounted the Great Tollbridge Caper. I actually thought this was pretty funny, but the Bicycle Advocate of the NJ Dept of Transportation wrote to the magazine to denounce my temerity in boasting about…

This review had a most interesting effect… it brought my mother around, though somewhat grudgingly, to loving my book. When she first read it, she was aghast at the undeniable evidence that her little boy could be a naughty and occasionally vulgar risk-taker, doing things that one speaks of only in whispers, and sleeping in…

This article had an unexpected side effect – I got along so well with the author that he became my base-office manager. His extensive writings on the computer scene were always good, and having someone on staff who could “speak the language” was most helpful when dealing with publishers and sponsors. This is one of…

Barry Bernson has personified the human-interest class of news in Louisville since 1971, and his stories were always a pleasure to watch. During a return visit to Jeffersontown to visit my parents, I had the pleasure of doing an interview with him. This VHS recording was on top of the TV when I returned sadly…

by Nancy Feigenbaum Greensboro News & Record April 2, 1988 Ask Steve Roberts how fast he can go on his 8-foot-long recumbent bike. “I can hit about 30 words a minute.” It’s all in the knee-high handlebars under the seat. Roberts has equipped them with eight typewriter-like keys he uses to control the two computers in…

This has always been one of my favorites from the 73 Magazine series I wrote in the late ’80s. The editors gave me freedom to talk about everything from cultural issues to deep geekery, and I was creating a lifestyle that melded those in all sorts of twisted ways. In this one, the world-changing implications…

This visit to Hand Held Products was the beginning of a consulting relationship that segued into an interesting friendship. It was one of the rare instances of “technology transfer” from the bike project (packet radio), and it was fun to make a small contribution to new product development. I had a piece in the same paper…

It was a great honor to see this review of my book by someone I’ve admired for years… David Gordon Wilson of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association. He and Chester Kyle can be credited with starting the recumbent bicycle movement, and he is also the author of the brilliant Bicycling Science. by Dave Wilson…

Posts by Steve

Technobikie

Freelance Rider – Bicycling Magazine

Life Aboard the Winnebiko – Bicycle USA

Computing Across America book review – The New Voice

Steven Roberts on the road but never out of touch – Courier-Journal

Computing Across America – Louisville WHAS11 Bernson’s Corner

Pedaling takes back seat with high-tech cycle – Greensboro

Bicycle-Mobile Packeteering

High Trek – Charlotte

Computing Across America review – Human Power IHPVA