apollo
07-19-2005, 10:57 PM
So, I got a chance to go by segway of Birmingham today. This was my first visit to a dealer and only my third segway experience.
By chance, I got to take three friends there with me: A fellow believer and mechanical engineering student, a skeptical aerospace student, and a friend who had never heard of a segway before! Rafael, the dealer was great. He's a fulltime pilot who sells segways on the side. He showed us his showroom and took out a blue I-series for test glides. My three friends were all a little timid with their first glides, especially Abigail who had never heard of a segway before. Rafael handled the glides like a pro, giving interesting and informative answers to our questions while guiding the timid first-time gliders around.
He put it on the red key and showed off the differences in speed, acceleration, and turning. To my surprise, he thought nothing of letting me try out the red key! So, like the seasoned pro that I am I took the I-series down the sidewalk, turned once, turned twice, and promptly ended up on the pavement. I took a turn a little to quick and ran into a concrete flower planter. With little more than my pride hurt, I got back on the seg (which was still standing) and glided back to the dealership. The segway was, for all practical intents and purposes, unscathed. Rafael talked to us a little more before we went back inside. But I wanted another shot at the glide. So, Rafael generously let me take the seg out again (this time by my choice on the black key) and I glided for several minutes down the block and back. The attention from passing motorists was welcome, mostly puzzled looks or blank stares, but to the ones who shared 'the smile' with me I gave a friendly wave.
Back inside, my friends were chatting it up with Rafael. My aerospace friend is a pilot close to getting his license. So, he and Rafael talked for a while about flying and connected. My friends left the dealer with brochures and business cards. The fellow believer was now talking about getting one just a soon as he graduated from college, the girl who had never heard of a segway before was intrigued but little more, and the skeptic was in his own words "a skeptic no longer."
I left with just two things: Rafael’s card, and the famous 'Segway Smile', which I wore for the rest of the afternoon. Or, at least until our Physics lecture started.
-----
- "The horse is here to stay, the automobile is only a fad." - President of Michigan Savings
Bank, advice to Horace Rackham (who later invested $5,000 in Ford and made $12.5 Million)
- "I think I may say without contradiction that when the Paris Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it, and no more will be heard of it." - Erasmus Wilson, Professor at Oxford University, 1878
- "It's a great invention but who would want to use it anyway?" - President Rutherford B. Hayes after a demonstration of Bell's telephone.
- "Diabolical device of the demon of darkness" - a Baltimore preacher in 1896 denouncing bicycles.
By chance, I got to take three friends there with me: A fellow believer and mechanical engineering student, a skeptical aerospace student, and a friend who had never heard of a segway before! Rafael, the dealer was great. He's a fulltime pilot who sells segways on the side. He showed us his showroom and took out a blue I-series for test glides. My three friends were all a little timid with their first glides, especially Abigail who had never heard of a segway before. Rafael handled the glides like a pro, giving interesting and informative answers to our questions while guiding the timid first-time gliders around.
He put it on the red key and showed off the differences in speed, acceleration, and turning. To my surprise, he thought nothing of letting me try out the red key! So, like the seasoned pro that I am I took the I-series down the sidewalk, turned once, turned twice, and promptly ended up on the pavement. I took a turn a little to quick and ran into a concrete flower planter. With little more than my pride hurt, I got back on the seg (which was still standing) and glided back to the dealership. The segway was, for all practical intents and purposes, unscathed. Rafael talked to us a little more before we went back inside. But I wanted another shot at the glide. So, Rafael generously let me take the seg out again (this time by my choice on the black key) and I glided for several minutes down the block and back. The attention from passing motorists was welcome, mostly puzzled looks or blank stares, but to the ones who shared 'the smile' with me I gave a friendly wave.
Back inside, my friends were chatting it up with Rafael. My aerospace friend is a pilot close to getting his license. So, he and Rafael talked for a while about flying and connected. My friends left the dealer with brochures and business cards. The fellow believer was now talking about getting one just a soon as he graduated from college, the girl who had never heard of a segway before was intrigued but little more, and the skeptic was in his own words "a skeptic no longer."
I left with just two things: Rafael’s card, and the famous 'Segway Smile', which I wore for the rest of the afternoon. Or, at least until our Physics lecture started.
-----
- "The horse is here to stay, the automobile is only a fad." - President of Michigan Savings
Bank, advice to Horace Rackham (who later invested $5,000 in Ford and made $12.5 Million)
- "I think I may say without contradiction that when the Paris Exhibition closes, electric light will close with it, and no more will be heard of it." - Erasmus Wilson, Professor at Oxford University, 1878
- "It's a great invention but who would want to use it anyway?" - President Rutherford B. Hayes after a demonstration of Bell's telephone.
- "Diabolical device of the demon of darkness" - a Baltimore preacher in 1896 denouncing bicycles.