Media - Winnebiko II Archives - Page 2 of 10

This is of a different breed from the usual newspaper article… a very well-written and thoughtful piece in the Guardian, covering not only the Winnebiko II but the adventure story itself. by Hugo Cornwall The Guardian December 1, 1988 Steve Roberts had the fantasy of becoming a hi-tech nomad. Hugo Cornwall reports on the machine that…

Who is Steve Roberts and is the Winnebiko Weally Wonderful? 32 years later, this brings back wistful memories. Maggie and I were traveling around the US the school bus, hauling cases of Computing Across America books and doing speaking gigs. We had pedaled 6,000 miles on both coasts, and were now rumbling through the difficult…

This article by Alan Reiter really captured the technological intensity of early cellular phones… I mounted one on my bicycle in 1988, and became something of a celebrity for that alone. I remember riding the bike through Silicon Valley, and a couple on regular upright bikes passed me. The woman called out, “Look, honey, he…

I always loved visiting sponsors… getting to know my contacts face-to-face, taking plant tours, demonstrating the bike for employees, and doing a bit of local media to give the company some fresh high-tech human-interest PR. This was a fun one, the maker of my favorite ham antennas, Larsen Electronics (now Pulse Larsen). The local paper…

This was a ham-radio connection, made during the bus trip around the US after the publication of Computing Across America. We stayed with K0PP for a few days, and had the fun of connecting my 5-watt Ten-Tec Argonaut 515 rig to my host’s monobander and working a DX pile-up via QRP from a rare county…

During the school bus epoch, wandering the US with Maggie, we stayed for a few days with K0PP, a ham-radio friend in Anaconda, Montana. This is one of the two newspaper articles about that event (the other is here), and there is a tale in the “Miles with Maggie” series about exploits on the HF…

Larsen was my favorite antenna vendor, and I was in regular contact with my connection at the Vancouver Washington company throughout the Winnebiko II and BEHEMOTH projects. I even dropped by for a visit, giving a presentation for employees and interviewing with the local paper. This piece is in a Larsen house organ, and was published…

Winnebiko II computerized recumbent bicycle console

This was a huge and significant addition to the Winnebiko II near the end of its epoch, and it became very well-integrated into BEHEMOTH… one of those amazing new cellular phones that were rocking the industry. Mine was donated by Oki Telecom, and this is their announcement to company employees. But it went much farther,…

I spent a few days at the brutally hot 1988 EAA Convention (Experimental Aircraft Association) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. People fly from all over the world to be part of this, and the scale was stunning. Naturally, my bike was a bit of an oddity there, even though there was enough technological overlap to turn a…

This beautiful cycling magazine was published by Warren Salomon in Australia from 1977 to 1989, and covers a huge range of history. In the July/August 1988 issue, he reviewed my Computing Across America book just after it came out, then graciously gave me the space to describe the Winnebiko II in detail. For decades I…

Media – Winnebiko II

Wheels of Desire – The Guardian

Vancouver Bicycle Club

The Easy Riding Hacker – Telocator

It’s a Bytecycle Built for 2 – The Columbian

Anaconda gets visit from high-tech nomad

High-tech nomads in Anaconda

Larsen Outfits Unusual Office on Wheels

Oki 491 Cellular Phone on High Tech Nomad Bicycle

Computer Nomad Bikes Where Others Go to Fly – Oshkosh Northwestern

Winnebiko II in Freewheeling – Australia