Maker

www.makezine.com/06/interview

into place”: why not combine the things he was point of absurdity and uselessness. So many most passionate about — computers, writing, components were put on it that a trailer had to be travel, bicycles, and romance — into a new life? designed to hold them, and for the bike to tow.

He ordered a custom-built recumbent (a type Renamed BEHEMOTH (Big Electronic Hu-
of sit-down bicycle), then grafted on a RadioShack man-Energized Machine ... Only Too Heavy), it
TRS- 80 Model 100 laptop, a Hewlett-Packard HP- was assembled in Silicon Valley by a team of
110 portable computer, CB radio, and a 5-watt volunteers assisting Roberts. It had almost every
solar panel to power these gadgets. He named piece of mobile and computer technology at the
the resulting vehicle the Winnebiko. time: a hacked Macintosh and other computer
Starting from Columbus, Roberts biked systems, tons of radio communications devices,
10,000 miles, passing through small towns along GPS navigation, even a radiation monitor.
the southern East Coast, through Florida, the “I got so distracted by the tech stuff,” Roberts
South, Texas, and the Southwest, and ending admits. “I’d be reading a trade journal and go,
in Silicon Valley in California about 18 months ‘Ooh, ooh, I could use that!’ and then I would
later. Throughout this trip, he continued to earn schmooze and get it.”
a living by writing articles on his laptop. He also The media and public were enchanted with
wrote about his journey, which eventually caught his journeys, and wowed by the technology-
the notice of people in the media, who wondered laden, though impractical, bike. Roberts was
about this man bicycling across America on a interviewed by many reporters and appeared
“computerized bike.” on TV talk shows. But as public interest in his
As fulfilling as this really long bike ride had project was reaching its peak, the tech-nomadic
been, he found it frustrating that he could not biker’s passion for his original dream was dying.
write while riding at the same time. “I had all this Ironically, to make public appearances and do
mobility, but I was just watching the words flow speaking gigs, he traveled the country in a diesel
away, knowing by night, when I was camping or truck that carried the BEHEMOTH in its trailer.
whatever, I would not capture these thoughts,”
he says. The Laboratory on an Island
Roberts upgraded the Winnebiko for an encore Using the money he earned from his speaking
trip in 1986. The Winnebiko II added packet radio tour for the BEHEMOTH, Roberts bought prop-
for email access, a security system with motion erty on Camano Island, choosing the region for
detection and voice synthesis, and a new, more its variety of surrounding waterways. He put up
sophisticated control panel. To enable himself the 3,000-squarefoot workshop to facilitate the
to write as he pedaled, he hacked apart the key- research, construction, and testing of small wa-
board of the TRS- 80 Model 100, and rewired the tercraft that would utilize tech-nomadic technolo-
keys to the bike’s handle controls. gies. He brought over the volunteer-community
His second bike tour ran from Seattle, along ethic of BEHEMOTH by inviting engineers and
the West Coast, and across the country to the other specialists to take part.
East Coast. He was accompanied by his girlfriend The “Microship Project” began with the idea
at the time, Maggie Victor, who rode her own of outfitting a basic kayak with communications
recumbent. Together, they traveled 6,000 miles. devices, but evolved into a pair of specially modi-
fied boats, Songline and Wordplay. These water
Behold the BEHEMOTH vehicles expanded upon the embedded systems
The attention Roberts got from the media led technologies that Roberts and his BEHEMOTH
to interest from corporate sponsors. From 1988 team developed, and which allowed the pilot to
to 1992, he threw more things onto the Winnebiko control almost every aspect of the craft through
II. A lot of things. Much like a succeeding ver- a Palm-OS PDA.
sion of a Microsoft application, the bike quickly In his workshop, Roberts shows me the inside
became bogged with too many features, to the of a thick plastic project box that’s sitting at one