In other words, he could be traveling by bike anywhere and stay in touch with people all over the world via the Internet, with solar energy and his own horsepower as the only power sources. At Quantum, he apologized for the limits of the computer hardware, much of which has become obsolete, such as the pair of 40-megabyte hard drives. His helmet, an old Bell Tourlite, also would seem antiquated, except that it holds a device that acts as a computer mouse, controlled by head movements. Roberts also uses a heat exchanger to circulate ice water through a helmet liner for cooling. He knows it looks extraterrestrial.
Resistance is futile.
After that he did carry little packets of mustard. Roberts could park the bike without locking it, relying on motion detectors that would trigger several responses. Gears range from 7.9 inches to 122 inches. Hydraulic brakes are controlled by hand levers, and there's a mechanical parking brake and a hydraulic disk brake on the rear wheel. Shock absorbers mounted underneath the computer console help prevent wear on the headset bearings.