Telecommuting by Bicycle in the ’80s, Photos from BAM!, and Other News That Won’t Change Your Life

What remains after BAM! 2026?

It was incredible.

And honestly, we would like to hug every single one of you.

❤️

Despite the rain, despite the mud, despite everything that tried to get in the way, the twelfth BAM! turned once again into what it has always been: a gathering of people who believe that bicycles are much more than bicycles.

If you haven’t seen them yet, the beautiful photos by Nicola Damonte are now online.

If you use them, please give credit to Nicola and BAM!.

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Who is Steven K. Roberts?
He is the man who, in a way, invented digital nomadism.
By bicycle.
In 1983.

Some people arrive too early. So early that the world doesn’t quite know what to do with them.

In 1983, Steven K. Roberts sold his house, left his life in Ohio behind and set off across the United States by bicycle.

At first glance, nothing particularly unusual.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, many Americans were leaving conventional lives behind. Some wanted to climb mountains, some wanted to follow a road, some simply needed an excuse to start over.

The interesting part comes next.
Steven wasn’t travelling. He was living and working.

On his extraordinary bicycle he mounted a computer, batteries, communication systems and even a solar panel. Today it would hardly impress a teenager carrying a smartphone. Back then it looked like something out of a science fiction novel written by a very optimistic engineer.

Remember: this was the early 1980s.

The internet did not yet exist for the general public.

Telephones were attached to walls.

And yet Roberts had already understood something important.

If his work consisted of writing and designing, why should he be forced to do it in the same place every day?Today that idea feels obvious.

In 1983 it was revolutionary.

His first bicycle was called Winnebiko, and over the years it evolved into something increasingly complex: more powerful computers, communication systems, electronics everywhere.
At one point he even managed to write while riding, using a keyboard mounted directly on the bike.

He crossed deserts, mountains, small towns and sprawling American suburbs.

People looked at him as either a genius or a madman. There was no middle ground.

Meanwhile, he wrote articles from the road and shared his experiences with thousands of readers.

His bicycles looked impossible: part recumbent bike, part radio station, part electronics lab and part machine built by a brilliant eccentric during a particularly long winter.

But the most remarkable thing is what he understood decades before the rest of us. Technology could be used to create freedom. Connection could enable movement instead of preventing it.

A person could have a professional life without giving up the road.

Today many of us dream about that possibility.

Steven K. Roberts was already doing it more than forty years ago.
The only difference is that instead of Zoom he had a telephone booth.

And instead of a power bank he had a five-watt solar panel.

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🚀 A few beautiful and interesting things. Or just interesting. Or just beautiful.
🚀

Like many of you, during BAM! we spent plenty of time wandering through the brand areas beneath the trees of Villa Contarini.
Some things we already knew. Others genuinely caught our attention.
Here are a few.

⚡ Evoc and the future of bikepacking
We really liked Evoc’s new bikepacking range.
Clean design, robust construction and clever details throughout. Our favourite was the Aero Bar Pack WP 5, designed to make the most of the space beneath aerobars without compromising accessibility.
A bag built for people who like covering long distances and stopping as little as possible.
Discover the complete bikepacking collection

🚲 Made for Miles: the bikes that stopped us in our tracks
The first edition of Made for Miles, the Miss Grape Bikepacking Dream Bikes Contest, brought together some beautiful machines.
Two builders stood out.
Cicli Barco impressed us with bicycles that honour the great randonneur tradition without becoming nostalgic.
And Groucho, a small framebuilder from the Italian Alps, caught our attention with mountain-bike-inspired geometry, thoughtful design and serious craftsmanship.

🗺️ Komoot is changing. And so far we like it.
We took the opportunity to ask the Komoot team plenty of questions.
Beyond the new visual identity, we were especially interested in practical improvements: clearer place names on maps, updated trail information and several upgrades for iPhone users.
The direction seems promising.

🚐 NOM Outdoor and the dream van
Yes, we know.
Some purists may roll their eyes.
But we’ve always been curious.
We were impressed by NOM Outdoor’s modular vanlife solutions: birch plywood modules designed to fit different vans, easy to assemble and surprisingly elegant.
They don’t build camper vans.
They create smart systems that allow people to build their own adventure spaces.
And we like that very much.
(For the record: we like camper vans. We don’t particularly like diesel. We’re still waiting for better solutions.)
But who is NOM?

🌍 Because we are not only travellers

📚 Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

The author passed away a few days ago.
One more reason to read this remarkable book.
Calling Persepolis a graphic novel feels reductive.
It is a story about a life and a country, Iran, seen through the eyes of a young girl.
A coming-of-age story that is at times funny, poetic and heartbreaking.
A book that may well make you laugh, cry and perhaps even dream of riding a bicycle through Iran, whose people remain among the most welcoming in the world.
Persepolis

🎵 Graceland, Paul Simon

A milestone in pop music.
One of the first major albums to bring African rhythms and influences into mainstream Western music.
Forty years later it still sounds contemporary.
A record about travel, in its own way, and about encounters between cultures.
Perfect listening while riding.
Listen it here

🎬 Backrooms –  directed by Kane Parsons

A strange, unsettling horror film that feels like a bad dream.
Created on a very small budget and inspired by a series of videos that have become hugely popular online, it is proof that good ideas matter more than big budgets.
Worth an evening at the cinema.
Watch the trailer