I got to drive a segway today - 05/22/2004 8:40 AM
I've been spending the weekend over at Charlotte Motor speedway for the races. Today - at a booth for Michilan Tires, they had those Segway Devices.... and if you signed away your life with a waiver and wore a helmet, you could drive one. ( I guess they made the tires, hence the promotion).
If you're not familiar with this device, it's a two wheel device that you stand on, which uses a gyroscope to keep balance. You lean forward = you go forward. You lean backwards=you go backwards. You can stand and turn on it in place.
It was definatately an odd sensation at first. You stand on it and it jiggles back in fourth, constantly "correcting" for you leaning forward/backwards etc...
It definately was difficult to put the Trust into it, without feeling like you were going to fall down. But after a minute or two of "coaching" with someone helping me, I was off and running, do laps on my own.
The most difficult thing to grasp was to not try to overcorrect my standing position. Let it do the correcting and keeping of balance. In other words, if you've ever seen a segway just stand there, it stands to reason that a 2 wheeled device can't balance on it's own. It needs to constantly kinda move it's wheels back and fourth (in tiny bits) to keep it upright. My tendancy was to try to correct my standing position.
So if it leaned forward, I'd lean backwards, but meanwhile it was already correcting for itself. So me leaning back and fourth just amplified the movement. Once I put full trust into it and felt comfortable leaning forward and backwards on the thing, it was as natural as standing and walking.
Basically you leaned forward slightly to make it go forward. So it's almost as "instinctive" as "thinking" you want to go forward. The further you lean, the faster it goes.
There's a thumb switch on the left landle to turn it left and right. If you're stopped, you can spin right around in a circle.
It was very cool, a definate highlight.
I'm going back tomorrow, and if it's not too busy, I might try it again.
If you're not familiar with this device, it's a two wheel device that you stand on, which uses a gyroscope to keep balance. You lean forward = you go forward. You lean backwards=you go backwards. You can stand and turn on it in place.
It was definatately an odd sensation at first. You stand on it and it jiggles back in fourth, constantly "correcting" for you leaning forward/backwards etc...
It definately was difficult to put the Trust into it, without feeling like you were going to fall down. But after a minute or two of "coaching" with someone helping me, I was off and running, do laps on my own.
The most difficult thing to grasp was to not try to overcorrect my standing position. Let it do the correcting and keeping of balance. In other words, if you've ever seen a segway just stand there, it stands to reason that a 2 wheeled device can't balance on it's own. It needs to constantly kinda move it's wheels back and fourth (in tiny bits) to keep it upright. My tendancy was to try to correct my standing position.
So if it leaned forward, I'd lean backwards, but meanwhile it was already correcting for itself. So me leaning back and fourth just amplified the movement. Once I put full trust into it and felt comfortable leaning forward and backwards on the thing, it was as natural as standing and walking.
Basically you leaned forward slightly to make it go forward. So it's almost as "instinctive" as "thinking" you want to go forward. The further you lean, the faster it goes.
There's a thumb switch on the left landle to turn it left and right. If you're stopped, you can spin right around in a circle.
It was very cool, a definate highlight.
I'm going back tomorrow, and if it's not too busy, I might try it again.
What was odd was the tour was still going on well after 9pm and plenty dark.
