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Re: Segway info



Your warning is too late, Ludwik; they're selling like hotcakes. They've
been selling to businesses since the middle of last year under the proviso
that they are to be used only within the place of business and not ridden on
public streets or sidewalks until after 1 March 2003. They started selling
to the general public last November exclusively through Amazon with delivery
scheduled after 1 March. Amazon won't say how many have been ordered but
they do say it's one of their best sellers. I ordered mine on 25 November.

About 30 of the first folks to place orders won an essay contest to get
early delivery. Segway flew them to New Hampshire for training at the
factory and dinner with Dean Kamen at his house. He's a millionaire inventor
who made his money with medical inventions -- surgical implants of various
kinds and a wheelchair that goes up and down stairs. It was the first use of
the self-balancing technology that's in the HT. They all got their machines
before Christmas and have been riding them in Chicago, Seattle, New York,
St. Louis, Los Angeles, Nashville, and various other places.

The company has a warehouse full of them ready to be delivered. They are
delaying delivery until March to give themselves time to set up training
classes around the country. It is so simple to ride that most folks get the
hang of it within 5 minutes, but I assume Segway's lawyers advised them to
require 4 hours of training before any customer can take delivery. You can't
fall over on one and a rider would have to be pretty careless to run into
anything, but it's already been done. It reminds me of the early days of
autos in this country when there were two cars in the entire state of
Indiana and they collided at an intersection in Indianapolis.

AP ran the story a week ago about the SF city council banning the Segway on
their sidewalks but there haven't been any national stories about the many
cities that have specifically approved them for sidewalk travel. The street
talk says the SF councilman who organized the ban was angered when Kamen
refused to back him in some scheme so this was his way of striking back.

I expect to have my training in February and receive my HT in March. There
is currently one HT in Ft. Worth and twenty-some-odd in Houston (bought by a
business there) but I believe mine will be the first one in Dallas. I plan
to use it mostly in the new exhibition I'm developing for our hands-on
science museum on The Invention and Evolution of the Wheel.

If you're interested, go to these links to read about folks who already have
one or are eagerly awaiting one:

http://www.segwaychat.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=3

http://www.bookofseg.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/23/technology/circuits/23segw.html?pagewanted
=1

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/105429_segway23.shtml

Dr. Paul O. Johnson
Senior Exhibit Developer
The Science Place
Dallas Texas

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ludwik Kowalski" <kowalskil@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: Segway info


Why don't they do the usual thing: showing the product,
demonstrating it and then starting to sell it? This alone
should be a warning. Do not go for their offer.

On Saturday, Jan 25, 2003 Bob Sciamanda wrote:

The Amazon ad for the Segway Human Transport includes some interesting
technical stuff. Go to:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007EPJ6/
ref=segway_tn_lef
t/103-6703733-8593400