Ever ride a Segway?

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Posted: 8/12/2005 4:54:01 AM EDT

I got to ride one a few weeks ago. I only spent a minute on it but it's as amazing as they say. You have to kinda toss a few basic things out the window to ride it but wow.

I wonder if they race them anywhere?

Posted: 8/12/2005 10:49:02 AM EDT

[#1]

Quoted:
I got to ride one a few weeks ago. I only spent a minute on it but it's as amazing as they say. You have to kinda toss a few basic things out the window to ride it but wow.

I wonder if they race them anywhere?

www.segway.com/images/v1/i180_red_rightback.jpg

I don't know. But I think the idea is kind of silly. Those things cost three thousand dollars, and for that money, you can buy a cheap car, a bike(or lots of them), a motorcycle, or a lot of guns!

Posted: 8/12/2005 11:05:08 AM EDT

[#2]

Yah, a little bit. My boss has one he likes to ride around our yard at work. I went forward about 30 feet, backwards about 10 feet made a simple turn and called it good. Just to be able to say I rode one.
Kinda neat, but I sure would'nt spend that kind of money on one.

Posted: 8/12/2005 11:56:39 AM EDT

[#3]

Those things are retarded.

Posted: 8/12/2005 1:27:36 PM EDT

[#4]

Dont get me wrong, I cant argue that they may be frivolous, expensive or retarded but they are amazing machines.
I'm not buying one either.

Posted: 8/12/2005 1:35:22 PM EDT

[#5]

How do they work ? All I ever hear is "..Motors and Gyros.."

. Beef one up for trail riding in the mountians . Where's Tim the tool guy when you need him .

Posted: 8/12/2005 2:31:34 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
How do they work ? All I ever hear is "..Motors and Gyros.." . Beef one up for trail riding in the mountians . Where's Tim the tool guy when you need him .

Put a blower on it and your set.

Posted: 8/12/2005 2:36:33 PM EDT

[#7]

Oh yes! I ride one on the weekends! I am a gun dealer and have a very large space at the shows. I use it to ride up and down the tables to do business.
psyc!

Posted: 8/12/2005 4:25:41 PM EDT

[#8]

A buddy of mine bought a SA 1911 from some dumbass dealer at a gunshow that was riding one of those stupid ass things. HE got a great deal on the .45 though.

Posted: 8/12/2005 4:26:04 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
How do they work ? All I ever hear is "..Motors and Gyros.." . Beef one up for trail riding in the mountians . Where's Tim the tool guy when you need him .

Like this one,

www.segway.com/segway/model_xt.html

Posted: 8/12/2005 6:06:02 PM EDT

[#10]

Think we have an obesity problem now, wait till they become more affordable.

Posted: 9/22/2005 9:27:02 AM EDT

[#11]

President's Segway tumble seems a tiny bit suspicious
President Bush meant to fall off his Segway. Oh, I'm sure of it. What we've got here is a clever conspiracy — a pre-emptive strike to save the oil industry from a technology that could sap its power.

President Bush falls over the handle bars of a Segway in a shot seen 'round the world.
By Steven Senne, AP

Over the weekend, while on vacation, Bush looked like Chevy Chase doing a Gerald Ford imitation as he stepped onto the platform of a Segway personal transportation scooter and went flying right off.

The first U.S. president to try a Segway supposedly forgot to turn it on, so the gyroscopic stabilizers couldn't automatically balance him.

But maybe Bush wanted to fall. Maybe he understands in a way few do that society is on the verge of a debate that could mold the future of transportation, much like the debate 100 years ago when cars first suggested that horses weren't the only way to travel.

And if the future veers toward little two-wheeled electric-powered personal transporters, where does that leave ExxonMobil and Halliburton and the rest of the oil industry President Bush adores? Probably in the same sad league as the old Pennsylvania coal-mining companies, with Houston as the next Wilkes-Barre.

Bush knows the possible effect of an image of the nation's commander in chief nearly doing a face plant because of an odd new contraption. In 1899, William McKinley became the first U.S. president to try an automobile. Freelan Stanley took big ol' McKinley for a spin in a Stanley Steamer. Imagine if McKinley fell out. The pro-horse contingent would've been in PR paradise.

The conspiracy theory is bolstered by this: It's nearly impossible to fall off a Segway. Seventy-nine-year-old George H.W. Bush didn't fall off the one he got from his sons for Father's Day. Barbara Bush also got one, and she didn't fall off hers.

John Goldsmith, a former TV commentator who lives in Naples, Fla., lets just about anyone try his Segway — and dozens have. "The learning curve to become Segway savvy is somewhere between 6 and 60 seconds," he reports. "I've never had anyone get so much as a scratch."

Heck, I rode a Segway down the halls of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which helped back the scooter's development. Staying on a Segway really is a no-brainer. I had fun, too. There is plenty of room to zoom around Kleiner's offices now that the piles of money from the 1990s are gone.

Vice President Cheney — Mr. Oil Guy himself — has had a Segway for some time now. I heard Dean Kamen, the Segway's inventor, talk about how Cheney called his company's office and asked to buy one. Kamen personally delivered a Segway to the White House. Cheney, in his suit and tie, jumped on and started riding it around the White House driveway, with a panicked Kamen running alongside him.

Bush saw them through the Oval Office window and came outside to watch, recalls Kamen, who has photos to prove it. This doubtlessly is when Bush first saw the potential of falling off one.

Cheney might have planned all along to fall off his in front of the cameras. In fact, being the vice president, and thus more expendable, he could've tried something more dramatic, like running into a wall at the Segway's top speed of 12.5 miles per hour. That would've made the Segway look super dangerous, considering all the teeth Cheney would've lost.

But Cheney probably felt conflicted. There's a high-tech stent in his heart that keeps him alive. It was invented by — oddly enough — Kamen. So maybe Cheney couldn't bring himself to fall off and hurt the image of Kamen's Segway. So Bush had to do it.

And, sure enough, the photo and story have appeared in just about every news outlet in the world.

Why would the Bush team want to derail the Segway? Well, the scooter is one of the most inspired pieces of technology this country has produced in years. It looks like it should be as unstable as a unicycle. But step on, and the smarts inside it keep you balanced. Lean forward and you go forward. Lean back and you go back. Twist a handle to turn. It is as intuitive to use as a coffee cup.

The Segway is powered by a rechargeable electric motor. A Seattle owner who commutes on his Segway and keeps a Web journal (www.bookofseg.com) says it costs him $1 a month to charge.

Kamen likes to compare the Segway to the earliest autos, like the Stanley Steamer. When McKinley took his ride, autos were a curiosity only the rich could afford. They seemed to have no discernable place in a world of horses and trains. As Richard Tedlow of Harvard Business School points out, "Nothing would've been less predictable in 1900 than the fact that by 1925 there would be no horses in cities."

It's outlandish to think that 25 years from now, Segway-like transporters would replace cars in cities. But Kamen asks: Why not? Instead of taxis crawling at 8 mph in city traffic, why not Segways moving at 8 mph? They'd use a fraction of the energy and spew a fraction of the pollution.

Maybe Kamen is the Freelan Stanley of this story. Maybe the Segway needs a Henry Ford, who will make a people's version that costs $500 instead of the current price of $5,000.

Unlikely as Segway domination may seem, history shows it's possible. And if it happened, the oil industry could kiss its profits and power goodbye.

Put it all together, and Bush had good reason to fake a fall off a Segway and stir up anti-Segway sentiment. Which makes me wonder: Do you think he had something against pretzels?

Posted: 9/22/2005 9:28:35 AM EDT

[#12]

I think they'd be pretty handy for postal workers. I heard they were using them in some of the PO's in NH.

It would open employment doors for some people with disabilities who can't otherwise walk great distances and/or for long periods of time.

Posted: 9/22/2005 12:44:25 PM EDT

[#13]

I was offered once,but thought,thats an expensive toy to tear up(I used to destroy other kids Honda QA-50s,they're not built for MXing).

Posted: 9/22/2005 12:57:15 PM EDT

[#14]

I've seen (in person) someone fall off a Segway. It's a lot easier than you'd think.

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