The Reality Distortion Field of Steve Jobs

A connected future inspired by bicycles and motorcycles.

Steve Jobs — Bay Area’s most famous captain of tech — riding in 1981. Image: Charles O’Rear, National Geographic Image Collection

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the day Apple co-founder and figurehead Steve Jobs passed away, age 56. Thirty years prior, he was photographed riding his 1966 BMW R 60/2 near the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, just a few miles south of our home in Mountain View. What he accomplished in those 30 years was nothing short of miraculous.

I ride my bicycle through Los Altos several times a week, passing the Alto Mesa Memorial Park where he’s buried, which recently reminded me of a chance ride I had with Jobs associate and friend John Doerr two months after Jobs died.

The Apple Bicycle Computer…?

The Apple Macintosh (now shortened to just 'Mac') got its name because the macintosh was project lead Jef Raskin's favorite apple. Jobs wasn't a fan of the name, which started out as just a code word, and wanted it to be changed to Bicycle. Although Jobs made repeated attempts at changing the name to Bicycle while Raskin was out of the office, Macintosh stuck, and was the name that ended up on each computer. How did the name Bicycle almost become linked with one of the most famous personal computers in history?

“I think one of the things that really separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders,” Jobs said in an interview. “I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation.

“So, that didn’t look so good,” he added. “But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts. And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” 

After we relocated to Mountain View from Dayton, Ohio in May 2006, Henri and I would ride bicycles to Palo Alto along Bryant Street, cruising through neighborhoods lined with Eichlers and mid-century moderns. I determined which house belonged to Jobs (2101 Waverley Street, on the corner of Santa Rita Avenue two blocks from Grace Presbyterian Church of Silicon Valley), and on a regular pedal past his place, saw the famous plateless silver Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG in the driveway, as Jobs himself was in the study reading sometime in the fall of 2008. It was a shared father-son fanboy moment.

BMW Motorcycles Are For Cool Kids

I continue to write about my preference for BMW motorcycles, and buying a 1962 BMW R 60/2 has been a highlight for the garage in 2023. I ride it several times a week, and always get smiles, waves and questions. Its simplicity is my joy, both in its design and efficiency. Jobs felt the same way about his 1966 BM R 60/2.

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

Steve Jobs

National Geographic magazine featured a 27-year-old Jobs in a 1982 issue titled “High Tech, High Risk, and High Life in Silicon Valley” featuring that beautiful R 60/2. Legend has it that Jobs could often be found cruising the streets of Silicon Valley on his Bavarian machine, dressed in a plaid shirt, jeans and leather boots.

“He still prefers to ride his motorcycle up to my place, sit around and drink wine and talk about what we’re gonna do when we grow up,” a friend from that era mentioned in an interview.

Young tech millionaires Jobs (left) and Apple partner Steve Wozniak.

I laid eyes on the same machine in late January 2019 on a day trip to visit Roland Sands and his team in their Los Alamitos headquarters in southern California.

Strolling through the RSD workshop, there sat a black R 60/2, nestled among several modern RSD customs, two of which were built for Brad Pitt.

“Hey Roland,” I leaned in. “Whose bike is that?”

“Don’t tell anyone, but my landscaper buddy does yard work for Steve Jobs’ widow, and she asked him if he knew anyone who could restore her husband’s bike, so we said sure.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off that black Beemer, but proceeded through the workshop up to Roland’s office where we conducted our business. Apparently that moment made a deep impression on me, and exactly four years later the ‘62 R 60/2 was added to the stable; as much as I would love to buy a birth year bike, the ‘66 models fetch a king’s ransom. I think of Jobs every time I cruise the Silicon Valley roads on my black machine, and smile in agreement with the quote he read at 17.

My 1962 BMW R 60/2, parked outside Red Rock Coffee in downtown Mountain View, CA, a few miles away from Jobs’ childhood home. Image: Gary Boulanger