All this Segway hate..... *sigh* I've put about 350 miles on mine so far this summer, and I can honestly say that it is a wonderful solution for city living. There are millions of us, so you'd think there would be a market. The problem is the misperceptions people have. To clear some of the misconceptions:
A) The Segway is not as expensive as people think. Yes of course five grand is a fair bit of money, but think of hoe much money people spend on public transportation in the big city over a few years. No, it's not as affordable as a bike or a cheap electric scooter, but I pay about $112 a month in financing charges for mine. I save at least that much by no longer having to take the bus / subway / cabs / use my car all the time and pay for gas and parking.
B) It saves so much time. I always get places faster than I would get there using my car or public transportation.
C) It goes in and out of buildings with ease, and has a stair-assist mode. It is about as wide as a person's shoulders. It fits through doorways easily and most elevators have no problem with it. I lock mine up outside buildings all the time. It has an alarm mode, won't start without the key, and is too heavy for a thief to quickly carry away.
D) It's completely sealed and waterproof. They test them by running them through a foot and a half of water. I love leaving it out in the rain because it cleans off the dirt. :-)
E) The Segway is a BLAST to ride. 12.5 mph is pretty damn fast on the sidewalk, and it is so responsive that it feels connected to your body. I rode mine about 10 miles through downtown DC today in 90 degree heat, up and down hills, but didn't break a sweat because I had a great breeze the whole time. And it's very stable if you learn how to ride it properly (i.e. don't do stupid things like take turns too fast).
F) The embarrassment factor reduces itself after a few goes. Yes, if you *think* you look like a dork, you will feel self-conscious. But riding it is so much fun, you really don't care what people think. I will admit that all eyes are always on me, but in reality most people are just intrigued, and plenty of people think it looks very cool. I'll promise you this: no matter how dorky it might look to some people, EVERYONE wants to take a ride.
There is interest in the machine. People kept stopping me to ask where I got it, and yes they asked how much it cost but they didn't balk at the price as much as you might think. The problem is that the marketing sucked and there was WAY too much hype and it soured everyone on the machine even though it is incredibly innovative, fun, and useful.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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All this Segway hate..... *sigh* I've put about 350 miles on mine so far this summer, and I can honestly say that it is a wonderful solution for city living. There are millions of us, so you'd think there would be a market. The problem is the misperceptions people have. To clear some of the misconceptions:
A) The Segway is not as expensive as people think. Yes of course five grand is a fair bit of money, but think of hoe much money people spend on public transportation in the big city over a few years. No, it's not as affordable as a bike or a cheap electric scooter, but I pay about $112 a month in financing charges for mine. I save at least that much by no longer having to take the bus / subway / cabs / use my car all the time and pay for gas and parking.
B) It saves so much time. I always get places faster than I would get there using my car or public transportation.
C) It goes in and out of buildings with ease, and has a stair-assist mode. It is about as wide as a person's shoulders. It fits through doorways easily and most elevators have no problem with it. I lock mine up outside buildings all the time. It has an alarm mode, won't start without the key, and is too heavy for a thief to quickly carry away.
D) It's completely sealed and waterproof. They test them by running them through a foot and a half of water. I love leaving it out in the rain because it cleans off the dirt. :-)
E) The Segway is a BLAST to ride. 12.5 mph is pretty damn fast on the sidewalk, and it is so responsive that it feels connected to your body. I rode mine about 10 miles through downtown DC today in 90 degree heat, up and down hills, but didn't break a sweat because I had a great breeze the whole time. And it's very stable if you learn how to ride it properly (i.e. don't do stupid things like take turns too fast).
F) The embarrassment factor reduces itself after a few goes. Yes, if you *think* you look like a dork, you will feel self-conscious. But riding it is so much fun, you really don't care what people think. I will admit that all eyes are always on me, but in reality most people are just intrigued, and plenty of people think it looks very cool. I'll promise you this: no matter how dorky it might look to some people, EVERYONE wants to take a ride.
There is interest in the machine. People kept stopping me to ask where I got it, and yes they asked how much it cost but they didn't balk at the price as much as you might think. The problem is that the marketing sucked and there was WAY too much hype and it soured everyone on the machine even though it is incredibly innovative, fun, and useful.
Plenty more Segway thoughts, pictures and video at my personal Segway blog, http://www.beforeisleep.net/labels/segway.html :-)
Matt