The plague of city centres has gone….

Segway has gone….

For a long time the shittiest form of urban transport (until fin hover boards that don’t hover turned up).

No more fat tourists dicking about clogging up the pavements and cycle paths (although there is now the new menace of escooters).

BBC News – Segway: End of the road for the much-hyped two-wheeler
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53160518

The Segway was also at the centre of a tragic incident when the self-made millionaire owner of the company died after falling from a cliff in the UK while riding one of his firm’s motorised scooters.

I did not know that.

I’d never actually seen one in real life.

Indeed, although I knew about the cliff accident, my only awareness of an actual Segway was from Weird Al’s ‘White and Nerdy’.

They looked pretty handy to me

Took my lad and his mates for a Segway session as a birthday trip when they turned 13 – great fun (off road), amazing technology, still boggles my mind how they actually worked.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen on in the UK.

I’ve only seen them in the flesh in America where I was very impressed by their, err, load carrying capacity.

Nah it was never the Segway. It’s a toss up between the motor car and the infrastructure it requires.

Saw some at the campsite in Blair Atholl a few years ago. What surprised me was just how noisy they were.

+1 for never seeing one in the UK. Were they ever a big issue? The transportation plague of city centres is the car, though. Personal electric transport is a step away from that.

I remember the hype when they were first shown, it was spectacular and then when you saw what it was it was so underwhelming.

Oh… Lots of the **** here in Munich, especially during the summer months.

Always fun to watch a half cut tourist faff it up and stack it.

See lots of them at trade fairs, too.

Only one I’ve seen in the UK is here in Malvern up and down the main flat drag in town. Don’t know if it’s standard or some of that weird science that goes on hereabouts.

Three thoughts every time I see him

1: Wow, you’re really high up on those
2: Wow, they’re actually pretty fast
3: Is that street-legal?

I thought they were pretty good. Surprisingly intuitive to use and way more manoeuvrable than a bike or scooter

Thought this was gonna be about methadone.

You could hire off road ones in Dalby forest at least I saw a group of them near Go Ape. I rode one over 10 years ago it was a larf but ultimately a bit pointless if you can walk briskly, didn’t feel the need to repeat the experience.

They’ve got them at the Go Ape at Cannock. Seen them the other day. They have a little off road track for them.

The Berlin tours are still going. The comical thing is that the people in the groups always seem to be dressed the same. Google “Berlin segway tour” and check out the pics.

Saw some at Sherwood Pines at the weekend. Never seen the appeal, I’d rather walk, run or ride my bike.

Berlin segway tour

You mean to say they look like generic septic tourists not accustomed to walking any distance?

Yup, but it would have been racist and impolite to our American saviours to say that. 😉

To be fair, we now live in a world that has replaced everything with a motor, so ninebot segway scooters, unicycles, skateboards and so on.

I’d say they’ve been removed due to cost and the cheaper options above, having visited an ebike shop last week there really is everything available for everyone, even my daughter wanted one of the kiddie e-scooters in pink.

Can’t say I’ve seen a city plagued with them.

Should hopefully free up space for some more much needed SUV’s.

Thanks for reminding me of this classic. Ian Healy looks so pleased with himself and smarmy Mark Nicholas is enjoying playing ‘bemused Noel Coward’ character.

Until it goes wrong and they’re both scrabbling around trying to replace big chunks of the hallowed MCG turf.

Never legal to use in the UK on roads or pavements. Only legal offroad on private property hence why they never took off here

I thought this was a thread about SportsDirect!

@tj, that would explain why I’ve never seen one.
Seen a few scooters, and occasionally see a guy at the west end on a sort of one wheeled type thing, but never an actual segway.

Had a “segway experience” bought for me & Mrs a few years ago, it was err underwhelming..

Seen a few scooters, and occasionally see a guy at the west end on a sort of one wheeled type thing

Those would be illegal as well assuming you mean electric scooters (although think there is currently a trial to look at legalising them). I think the main thing against segways would be the size and cost. Admittedly they might be lighter and easier to carry than they look not ever having tried but they dont look over convenient for a commute whereas one of those scooters could be easily carried up to the office.
They are available for hire at swinley I think. Sometimes see them trundling around in groups.

You could hire off road ones in Dalby forest

For, er shredding the notorious gnaaar there to be found?

WE have used them a few times. They are not road legal in the UK, so the trails that they are on are pretty crap generally, although the kids enjoyed it. They are also limited in the UK I think, so you can walk faster than them.

Had an off road trip on them in SPain, where they are often unrestricted, and they can shift – was great fun. They are big and heavy though, as well as stupidly expensive. Where I think they could have been great was as a mobility scooter for people who want to stand (or sit with a higher seat). Most mobility scooters leave people very low down, and my mum complains that people talk over her and she cant reach things on shelves etc. She can actually stand OK, so something like this that has a much smaller footprint than a typical scooter would have been great.

Yes, I meant electric scooters, yeah totally illegal, but as long as nobody gets hurt i guess the police have bigger fish to fry.
Would be a very different matter in the event of an accident of course.
I used to see a guy on a unicycle with (guessing here) a 29er wheel, riding over deans bridge in Edinburgh. On the road. Braver man than me.

The police in Chengdu, China use them. They have these terrifying looking knives on their waistband but roll around on segways, such somewhat undermines how seriously you can take them. Very odd juxtaposition.

The police in Chengdu, China use them. They have these terrifying looking knives on their waistband but roll around on segways, such somewhat undermines how seriously you can take them. Very odd juxtaposition

Only place I’ve seen them and tried them was Longleat Center Parcs ~5 years ago, where they did staff lead taster sessions. I found it quite tricky, but improved a lot over the session, natural middle age cautiousness plus extra anxiety on a potentially quite unstable vehicle after my Xmas 2013 RTA.

Missed or more likely forgotten the cliff incident mentioned above!

I suspect the next plague will be e-scooters, depending on how this very low key legalisation of hire ones using the cycle lanes go. The one thing I don’t understand about them is why do so many scooters have very narrow foot platforms, that force you to contort your body to place one foot in front of the other… Widen the platform to ~30cm.

I was bought an “Offroad Segway Experience” voucher for two as a gift by my parents a few years ago.

The ammount of effort involved in getting somewhere where the voucher could be used and our lack of enthusiasm for spending an hour on one meant that we never actually did it.

We didn’t have the balls to tell my parents though as didn’t want to appear ungrateful.

Maybe we were too enthusiastic to them with our review of the day that never happened as years later they still mention the time that my wife and I went on Segways and keep offering to buy us another voucher. They even shared the BBC news article above with us expecting us to be sad.

The one thing I don’t understand about them is why do so many scooters have very narrow foot platforms, that force you to contort your body to place one foot in front of the other… Widen the platform to ~30cm.

Because the dynamics make that a bad idea, you ride it like a snowboard, not a monoski.

Plus making it that wide would make it really easy to have a kid or two sit down there.

They’ve got them at the Go Ape at Cannock. Seen them the other day. They have a little off road track for them

We were given the vouchers and finally got around to doing the Segway experience at Cannock this weekend – so it might have been us you saw! Quite a lot of the Go Ape centres have them. They are neat tech, and surprisingly capable – but our verdict was ‘what’s the point?’. You get no adrenaline, no real sense of having achieved anything, unless your aim is to avoid any form of exertion. I felt the same when I tried a jet ski – neat tech, but meh. There’s quite an interesting article about the history of Segway here. Interestingly the new owner makes the real plague of city centres, the rental e-scooters like Lime and Bird.

I’ve had a quick go on one at a demo. Kids loved them. I’d be happier on my bike.