Anyone here buy a Segway?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Its security system prevents it from being started if the computer-encoded key is missing. It does nothing to stop someone from stealing it for parts.

Try leaving a $5,000 bicycle on the street without chaining it to something. Let me know how that works out for you. The difference bteween a Segway and a motorcycle is that a motorcycle is heavy and rather large. To steal one you need a pickup truck with a ramp, and it’s a very visible, loud, and time consuming process to grab one. A segway? Two guys jump out of a car, grab the Segway, and throw it in the trunk.

If I owned one, I wouldn’t leave it anywhere unattended. And they are forbidden in most buildings.

I always thought the Segway was going to be a flop. That stuff about them being safe for sidewalks is ridiculous. Getting hit by one going full speed would be like getting hit by a man running down the street holding a steel bar in front of him, with a heavy metal plate at ankle-breaking height. They are dangerous on sidewalks unless they are slowed down to a normal walking speed, in which case you might as well walk.

Even the one area where I thought they’d be useful turned out to be a dud. I thought they’d sell a zillion of them for mail carriers. But a couple of post offices have tried them, and the mail carriers don’t like them. It seems that mail carriers sort their mail while they are walking between houses. When they are on the Segway, they can’t sort mail. So they can drive between houses faster, but then they have to get off and sort the mail, which takes the same amount of time. So they save no time, but they have this machine they have to take care of, load and unload at the start and end of their routes, etc.

No doubt there are some niches were a Segway makes sense. But I don’t think it’s nearly enough to support the business plan. My guess is that the Segway company will either go under at some point, or the Segway will be picked up as a product by some company like Honda and they’ll find a way to lower costs and sell them at a price point where they make sense for more applications. At $500, or even $1,000, they’ll start selling them basically as toys for people who want to take them on vacation to get around, and to security guards in buildings, etc. But at $5,000 you have to make a serious business case for them, and “Hey, that’s cool” doesn’t cut it.

22

By the way, here’s a Segway that someone’s trying to pawn on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=22703&item=3681390964&rd=1

$647!

23

One model was recalled, but the fix was just a software upgrade

24

Is this really accurate? I seem to recall a column from Cecil, about “Do you get less wet if you run rather than walk thru the rain?”, with the answer basically it’s pretty much the same either way. (Sorry, I can’t find it with Search.)

25

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_395.html

I stand (somewhat) corrected.

26

Well, here’s a summary of the Recall Description from that cite:

This recall involves all Segway (i Series) models sold to consumers. In addition, Segway is including all (e Series) models sold to commercial users, and all (p Series) models sold to consumers in test markets.

Since Segway only offers those 3 series, that pretty much covers all Segways. I suppose it doesn’t cover those sold to industrial or military customers, but this was the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
And “the fix was just a software upgrade” … well, I remember hearing that a 12¢ tank liner would have fixed the exploding gas tanks of Ford Pintos. So what?
My point was that I would hesitate before spending this much money on a vehicle of limited usability with design flaws requiring it’s recall. But that’s my opinion; I’m stingy about spending my money. Others may think this recall is a minor issue, and may be more willing to spend around $5,000.

27

It’s not a Segway but instead something vaguely similar called a Rieti Electric Civic Mover.

28

You’re right. I was fooled by “Segway style.”

29

Since my arthritis is getting pretty bad, there are some days when I wish the malls I work in had them at every entrance, just so I wouldn’t be in pain by the time I get to my store! A lot of people who have no problem standing still may have problems walking, and I know that if I went to a zoo or amusement park, I would really appreciate being able to use something like the Segway.

But for someone like my mom, who can no longer stand for long periods of time (like 15 minutes), a motorized chair would work better.

When I was riding the bus more regularly, I often fantasized about having a Segway to ride to and from the bus stops. Riding a bike in a skirt and pantyhose isn’t my idea of fun, and I saw lots of older women riding the bus who had to walk a mile or more from their stop to their home. To be able to slice off a few precious minutes from that painful walk would be heavenly.

There is a store that sells them in nearby Lakewood (a city of many, many walkers and bus riders) but I have never seen anyone riding one.

30

I remember the buildup they had for it…

Best thing since sliced bread, they said. Its going to revolutionize transportation!

Behind the curtain is…

A very expensive and rather useless scooter… thing.
And on some cable show I saw someone who’d made one himself for under a grand and with little electronics experience. It worked pretty much as well as the regular segway, though with a little less streamlined look.

31

We spent Christmas in Sarasota, Fla and there was a family (?) who would make regular treks out on them. We drove by this little ‘train’ of Segways trundling down the sidewalk near the waterfront a number of times. Sort of an odd sight. Can’t imagine how much exercise they would have got…about the same as washing dishes, I guess.

Wow! Are you the oldest doper!?! :stuck_out_tongue:

32

IIRC in my city you can’t use them on the street. You can’t use them on the sidewalk.

Which doesn’t leave a lot of options!

33

Yeah, I don’t get it. If you need to sit, you can’t. If you need luggage racks, you don’t have them. If you need to use both hands to carry stuff, you can’t. If you’re rather sick or elderly, you may not be able to drag it up the curb to the sidewalk when needed, unlike an aluminum hollow-tube wheelchair.

For $5000, you could have bought a decent old Honda Civic and been done with it, and wheelchairs are going on ebay for a couple hundred bucks, motorized for under $1000, it looks like. For a couple thousand, you could get a BMW motorcycle with three luggage bins.

34

Segway: $4500
Vespa: $3000

No contest.

35

I’d love a Segway, but like Sam Stone said, they’d have to be $500-$1000 for me to seriously consider it at all, since I’d pretty much just be getting one for random fun.

My girlfriend saw the only Segway in Australia a couple of months ago, pooting along in St. Kilda, near Melbourne. Actually, I’m not sure if it still is the only one here, but about a year ago there was a story in the paper about the guy who bought it, saying how he had to get a friend in the USA to buy it for him and then ship it to him. So he probably paid closer to A$8000-A$10000 for it. Still, it’s nice to see that it hasn’t been stolen from him. Yet.

Also, IIRC, Dean Kamen (Segway Inventor) didn’t have that much to do with the ridiculous claims that were being made about “It” before the Segway was revealed (i.e. we’ll want to redesign cities for it, it’ll make cars obsolete etc.). I think that was all part of some guy’s pitch to a publishing company for a book about the development of the Segway, so of course it was mostly hyperbole.

36

A woman in my apartment building has a Segway. She turns heads and slows traffic every time she glides down the sidewalk on it. One day I ended up on the elevator with her and her contraption, and being that it’s the kind of thing that is impossible to ignore I asked her how she likes it.

She said she absolutely loves it, so much so that she suspended her car insurance and rides the Segway everywhere she needs to go. I couldn’t imagine that would be easy here in Philadelphia, what with all the cobblestones, potholes, and errant bus drivers, but she said she can take it anywhere she needs to go.

She wears a backpack to carry whatever needs carrying, and has the cleaners hang her dry cleaned garments from a loop on top of the bag while it’s on her back. I’ve seen her zipping down the street like this, with her laundry billowing behind her like a cape. Our very own pokey Segway superhero…