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Segway Riders Get High on Mount Washington
TacticalJack writes "Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test. The team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the 6,288-foot mountain summit. All of which begs the question, why not buy a motorbike?"
hrrrm. i wonder if they had to carry their batteries... because, we _all_ have 6 specialty batteries lying around just incase the first 5 die.
If a segway can go 12.5mph up a 12-18% grade then it must have enough power to go considerably faster that it's advertised 12.5 mph top speed on flat ground.
How long until people start hacking their segways to achieve maximum speed?
Well yeah, it's a cute toy, but the Segway just seems like such a pointless, expensive, inefficient and above all inelegant solution to something that wasn't a problem in the first place... to me that makes it profoundly un-geeky.
You know they call 'em fingers but I've never seen 'em fing. Oh, there they go.
Mount Washington Records
The only thing more pathetic than a clown is a clown riding up Mount Washington on a Segway.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
The difference being that the Segway eats 6 battery packs in 7.6mi and the motorcycle can walk that with the gas inside a Zippo.
Segway: useless tech for senseless people.
I'm a chainsmokin' alcoholic sociopath, so-ci-o-path
Slightly off topic, but this might be of interest to readers tonight, so what the hell!
This reminded me of the Mt. Washington Auto Road Race. To be a little more on-topic, one year they had a Geo Metro electric car 'do' the race- it looked really funny, because both driver and 'navigator' were required to wear helmets since it was a sanctioned race. Unlike some of the 600hp cars, the starter didn't exactly have to jump out of the way with them).
The hillclimb is the US's oldest motorsport event, believe it or not- however, it's also one of the most troubling. Despite attracting a healthy crowd every year, Audi pulled sponsorship after Frank Sprongl(driving an Audi S2 rally car) stopped winning, despite numerous VW and Audi entries.
The final straw for Audi, sponsorship-wise, was most likely the guy in the Legend car(motorcycle engine, 4 wheels, micro-sized chassis) who went off, clipped a rock, and was pulled from his car by a 16 year old cornerworker, right before the car burst into flames from a severed fuel line(the engine compartment was severed from the car by the rock). Long ago Audi had stopped their factory rally teams after a slew of deaths in the Group B category in various rallies; Piesch, now head of Volkswagon Audi Grouppe, declared at the time that he "never wanted to see rings stamped on a spectator's chest". Audi of America management were probably sneaking the Mt. Washington race under the radar of the parent company, but all that changed with the big crash(the kid even got a medal from the Governor).
Another factor is that Audi now considers rallying a been-there-done-that(Audi dominated rallying in the early 80's with the first Quattro Coupes and Sport Quattros), no-longer-cool kinda deal; their customer base just doesn't care, or so they think; guys who drive A8's don't like hanging out in the rain watching cars go by throwing rocks into their faces; they like sitting in a hospitality tent in cool comfort. So that's why Audi threw themselves into LeMans and ALMS(American LeMans Series), along with the Speedvision(er, SPEED Channel) SpeedGT(S4's, last year) and ProGT(RS6's, this year) races.
Mt. Washington management has given a variety of excuses for not continuing the race; first it was Audi, because they couldn't find another sponsor(rumor was they were looking for 1 million- an ABSURD amount of sponsorship money; it may be the oldest motorsports events, but it's also one of the lowest profile). Then it was because the road needed resurfacing(although honestly, having driven it myself three times as well, it WAS getting really bad). Then it was because the lodge, which had absolutely nothing to do with the race, burned to the ground and was 'behind schedule' on being rebuilt, or some such nonsense.
There are rumors going around that the race will continue next year. The local region of the Audi Club of America might attend(as it has for many, many years- we were the yahoos with all the Audis parked to the left of the starting area). Depending upon how solid the Audi+VW marques are represented, I'll be there- our little sub-event is a great family affair and I've always enjoyed myself; it's pretty gosh darn cheap, and getting there and back is half the fun(there are some GREAT roads in the area). Spectators can do whatever floats their boat- you can go up to any of several points on the mountain via van to watch the races(warning- you're limited as to when you can get back down!), you can hike the mountain(not for the inexperienced), you can watch from the start line and see trap speeds etc...and you can also watch from a nice point that's just a few minute's hike and gives you about 20 second's view per car.
The basic idea, if you're wondering, is simply to get up the mountain as absolutely fast as possible. Frank Sprongl was a regular winner, but his S2 is no longer competitive against some of the cars that started showing up- Jerry Driscoll(sp?) kept building meaner+meaner purpose-built tube-frame cars with insane engines in 'em until he started winning, despite not having all wheel drive(which is a MAJOR advantage, to the point that it's a seperate class in any sanctioned rally).
Please help metamoderate.
I don't know, some people hate clowns, some are afraid of clowns, and then some, like me, love clowns...
But does a clown really retire? Is "clown" a profession? The ones I knew never retired... I guess being a clown is a personal trait for them.
It was actually quite intriguing to see it in person. This old guy was crossing the street in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood. My friend commented "is that legal?"
The old guy made it across the street in a jiffy and was a block and a half away by the time the light turned green. From the looks, if an older person can master a Segway, then they shouldn't have as big a need for a car, particularly in urban areas. Perhaps it'd be safer for them to have a Segway (so long as they're not falling off it and breaking a hip)?
It is amazing how difficult it is to form an intelligent response to this article.
Well what can you say about it? If this were merely a case of entertainment posing as a news story, that would be one thing. But this is advertising, pretending to be entertainment posing as a news story. It's not even infotainment, it's advertainment.
So far all the Segway stories I've seen on Slashdot (aside from the San Francisco sidewalk controversy) have had the character of guerrilla marketing. "Hey, we got to play with a Segway for a week, here are some movies of us having fun with it!" Other products appear on Slashdot this way, but usually only when their users have made strange or noteworthy modifications that the designers never intended. Like creating a case for it made of Legos, or incorporating it as a part in a rail gun, or running a free operating system on it.
This thing has been on the market for years now. At this point we should only be seeing Segway stories when people do similar things to Segways. If someone modified a Segway by installing a feeding tube, so that the rider could suck a high calorie substance like gravy through the tube while simultaneously avoiding exercise, that would be a cool Segway story. Another newsworthy modification might be converting the Segway from electric to diesel. Using the product normally, in the manner that was intended by the manufacturer, is simply not worth our attention. (Dressing up like a butler while you do it is cute, but hardly changes this.)
I think stories that are essentially guerrilla marketing, or that are about guerrilla marketing, should have their own icon. I'm picturing a gorilla on a Segway.
I have a wheelchair. I can walk just fine- for distances of a mile and a half or less. Any more and my joints can't take it, the inflammation gets too bad and i'm out of commission. So i can get through my workday, but i have the wheelchair for group adventures where it's more fun if i can keep up. Great for museums, but more difficult outside, especially on hills. My arms aren't any better than my legs, so it needs to be pushed, rather than wheeled by me. It works out great, we all take turns, and while i can't push anyone in it, everybody gets a chance to ride and that way i can walk for a little of it and still be part of the adventure. For them it's novel and fun; for me, it's my chance to take part in these excursions. Without it, i'd miss out on a lot.
A segway would be a great thing to have, but before i spend that kind of money on it, i need to know how it does in real-world operation, with real-world surroundings like dirt and tree branches and so on. So i watch for things like this. It's not a wheelchair and it's not a walker and it's not a little red wagon to be pulled in- it's a scooter that you don't have to propel on your own. Believe me, the energy it saves will be put to use elsewhere. I would love to be able to keep up on a hike!!!
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
Is under 50 minutes. These records need updating. And the bike didn't have to stop half way up for more air and water.
A little more web research finds that one can increase rotational responsiveness a bit by changing the key coding, but apparently the Segway ignores forward speed settings above the maximum allowable value. So you can set the speed value to "FF" if you want - and some have tried it, but you still get the same 12.5 as the next guy.
I play Nerd-Folk!