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Steven K. Roberts (born September 25, 1952) is an American journalist, writer, cyclist, archivist, and explorer. He first gained public attention as a pioneering digital nomad, before the term became widely used, when from 1983 to 1991, Roberts toured the United States on three different heavily modified, computerized, recumbent bicycles. It was inspired by an early model Avatar (serial #1) that he rode. This was the Winnebiko from 1983 to 1985, the Winnebiko II from 1986 to 1988, and then the Big Electronic Human Energized Machine, Only Too Heavy, BEHEMOTH. He pulled a trailer equipped with solar panels and other electronic equipment. His journey is documented in his book, ''Computing Across America''.
The first year and a half of his bike tour covered over 10,000 miles. He wrote articles in his tent and filed the pieces via pay phone submitting them to publications like ''Time (magazine), Time'' and ''Newsweek''. The bike, also known as the Big Electronic Human Energized Machine, Only Too Heavy, BEHEMOTH, had an estimated $300,000 of equipment on it, mostly donated, including satellite email retrieval, a mobile amateur radio station (callsign N4RVE), and a paging system that would page him if an urgent email arrived while he was away from the bike.
After he was featured on the front page of ''The Wall Street Journal'', media coverage accelerated and included a full one-hour appearance on The Phil Donahue Show.
As press attention mounted, he shifted his efforts and built a computerized trimaran. He worked on various iterations of the trimaran for years.
As of 2017, he had turned his efforts into digitizing records, home movies, video tapes, audio recordings, slides, negatives, and various other media, and was living aboard a 50-foot power boat equipped with a 3-D printer, weather station, virtual reality system, electronic piano, 10 ham radios, and more, around 50,000 pounds worth, in Friday Harbor, WA.
As of 2025, he has left the boat, and has his equipment in a 48-foot mobile lab.
Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad at the Internet ArchiveNomadic Research LabsHolloway.com – Part III: A Brief History of Nomads 2022Astro.com/astro-databankComputer History MuseumBikePacking.com: STEVE ROBERTS: COMPUTING ACROSS AMERICAYouTube.com: Nomadic Research Labs Channel by Steven K. RobertsYouTube.com: Winnebiko on CBS Morning News, 1984 - Wanderlust, Computing Across AmericaYouTube.com: BEHEMOTH talk at Novell event in Las Vegas - May 1994YouTube.com: It'll Never Work (BBC) - BEHEMOTH Bicycle 1994
The first year and a half of his bike tour covered over 10,000 miles. He wrote articles in his tent and filed the pieces via pay phone submitting them to publications like ''Time (magazine), Time'' and ''Newsweek''. The bike, also known as the Big Electronic Human Energized Machine, Only Too Heavy, BEHEMOTH, had an estimated $300,000 of equipment on it, mostly donated, including satellite email retrieval, a mobile amateur radio station (callsign N4RVE), and a paging system that would page him if an urgent email arrived while he was away from the bike.
After he was featured on the front page of ''The Wall Street Journal'', media coverage accelerated and included a full one-hour appearance on The Phil Donahue Show.
As press attention mounted, he shifted his efforts and built a computerized trimaran. He worked on various iterations of the trimaran for years.
As of 2017, he had turned his efforts into digitizing records, home movies, video tapes, audio recordings, slides, negatives, and various other media, and was living aboard a 50-foot power boat equipped with a 3-D printer, weather station, virtual reality system, electronic piano, 10 ham radios, and more, around 50,000 pounds worth, in Friday Harbor, WA.
As of 2025, he has left the boat, and has his equipment in a 48-foot mobile lab.
Books
*''Industrial Design With Microcomputers'' () 1982 *''Creative Design With Microcomputers'' () 1984 (2nd edition of ''Industrial Design With Microcomputers'') *''Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad'' () Steve describes the wild results of his drastic break with suburban life on his 10,000-mile journey across the United States of America on his computerized bicycle. 1988 *''From Behemoth to Microship'' Steve's journey from computerized recumbent bicycles, Winnebiko and BEHEMOTH to system design and early adventures with the Microships that are amphibian pedal/solar/sail networked folding micro-trimarans. () 2000.External links
Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad at the Internet Archive
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Steven K. 1952 births Living people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American journalists Cyclists from Pennsylvania American male journalists Journalists from Pennsylvania American technology journalists