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by dshep 2101 days ago
I imagine a lot of people here might be too young to know about Steve K Roberts. He had an earlier bike called WINNEBIKO (II?). Imagine yourself as a kid in the 80s watching something like this on TV, it was super cool.

High-Tech Bike on Spectacular World of Guinness Records - 1988

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2G6DtfZFUU

Xerox PARC Winnebiko presentation by Steve Roberts - 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU6MXakwcjI

It's easy to overlook how inspiring this was without knowing about the context in which we lived back in the 80/90s. No one had cell phones, few people had computers, or had ever used a computer network, let alone the internet. I'm not sure I had even used a computer at the time, and I saw this guy on TV talking about being able to: write a book while riding his bike, talk to people all over the world via computer network, work remotely, it was poof mind blown. Like looking 15 years into the future.

Later on during University, after my first summer programming internship I read his book, "Computing Across America", which I highly recommend. For me at least, Steve was also kind of a lifestyle guru. Reading his book you realized you that you didn't have to be chained to a desk in an office, that technology would open up new lifestyles. It was a wake up moment where I tried to visualize my ideal life, and where the normal way of things was no longer interesting and something to avoid.

Steve Roberts has a youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/microship/videos