Back from training !!
Well, I attended Segway training in Chicago (Northbrook) on Saturday. It's really hard to explain what it is like. Here are some random observations.
It takes about 5 minutes to forget that you're on a two wheeled platform. You don't have to make a conscious effort to lean. When you decide to go somewhere, there you go at the speed that you want to. Stops on a dime and you can control your movements down to a quarter inch. It feels like it's reading your mind, but it's actually reacting to slight shifts in body weight. You can move forward, backward and coming to a stop without hands, although the handle bar will vibrate a little if you don't hold on. You steer with your left hand, which takes a little getting used to.
One of the engineers told me that originally the Segway was so quite that they added acceleration noise to provide the rider with audio feedback. However, the Segway is a quite vehicle.
I'm 33 years old and I was the youngest person there. One lady from a small town in Iowa (300 pop.) was 86. The trainer said that they trained a 94 year old a couple weeks ago.
There were several Segway sitings at the National APA conference last week. Did anyone see them? I'm expecting delivery within 10 days. Although, they couldn't guarantee delivery because "they're backed up in manufacturing", presumably due to demand.