Bikelab Notes
Phil Donahue Show, Road Stories, & Aquatic Teaser
Bikelab Notes #17 June 5, 1992 by Steven K. Roberts IN THIS ISSUE: Phil Donahue Show Road Stories Sensory Input Capacitors Hints of Aquatic Nomadness “If it needs to be stronger, we make it bigger. If that makes it ugly, we chrome it.”— Harley-Davidson engineer, speaking anonymouslyduring discussion of structural engineering and materials science. Well, well. The…
Read MoreUpdate from a Kentucky Rainstorm
by Steven K. Roberts Bikelab Notes #16 May 10, 1992 IN THIS ISSUE: Update from a Kentucky rainstorm Donahue show and other plans Antennas, PPP, SPARCbook, CDROM, and more magic “Is that Evil Knievel?”— overheard comment from a clueless passerby who, fortunately, didn’t stop to investigate further. Ah, I love it. Despite cries of anguish from…
Read MoreBikelab Report #15 – The Mother of All Layovers
by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs IN THIS ISSUE: “I’d rather be lucky than talented. Luck doesn’t take any work.”—David Berkstresser, who never fails to come up with a quotable line in the middle of a pizza. I keep getting glimpses of it. Sometimes it appears in images elicited by the music of my…
Read MoreBikelab Report #14 – Post-Nomadic Stress Disorder
by Steven K. Roberts Silicon Valley, California December 31, 1991 “The difference between art and work is that work has a deadline.”—David Berkstresser Post-Nomadic Stress Disorder… and Quest for Humans Damn, I hadn’t anticipated this… but I should have. Working obsessively for a few years on BEHEMOTH and then abruptly relocating it to the shores of…
Read MoreBikelab Report #13 – Mothership and Mini-reviews
by Steven K. Roberts Silicon Valley, California October 30, 1991 “Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?”— unknown cyclist on RAGBRAI, passing me on a 90-degree day as I cruised easily with Cusco on the stereo and ice water circulating through my helmet. Shakedown post-mortem Well, I’m back at the lab. Three months of adventure…
Read MoreThe Rhythms of the Road
After 3+ years of intensive development work, BEHEMOTH finally got some road time… beginning with RAGBRAI in Iowa, then a languid yet difficult mini-adventure up through Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It is dreamlike in retrospect… not an open-ended life epoch like the first two versions of the bike, but a sort of frantic escape from…
Read MoreThe BEHEMOTH FAQ
by Steven K. Roberts Silicon Valley, California June 22, 1991 “You know you’re going slow when you’ve got dead bugs on the BACK of your bike.” — the always-quotable David Berkstresser, watching me trundle up his driveway during a test ride. It’s getting close. Suddenly all priorities have changed — the things that distracted me last…
Read MoreBikelab Report #10 – Antenna Farm
by Steven K. Roberts Silicon Valley, California May 28, 1991 “Daddy toys!”— concise assessment by Julia Selfridge, age 2,upon being introduced to BEHEMOTH for the first time. Well, there are now 49 days to departure, and I’m in the D phase of the PFD phenomenon that most concisely describes my work habits (Procrastination Followed by Despair).…
Read MoreBikelab Report #9 – BEHEMOTH Bike Tech
Photo: David Berkstresser at Cecil, the Rockwell milling machine in the Bikelab. (Cecil be ‘da Mill) 3:15 AM. It’s becoming a familiar time — a favorite one, even. This time of day, there are few commercials on the radio to disrupt the back-to-back jams. There are no phone calls, few stray beeps from the SPARC,…
Read MoreBikelab Report #8 – Satellite Datacomm
by Steven K. Roberts Silicon Valley March 21, 1991 You know, sometimes this whole thing seems deliciously insane. Off the deep end. Wigged out… big time. It seldom appears to me in that light, fortunately, but occasionally I have a moment of shifted perspective — perhaps while lying under this monster trying to reach a…
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