Ive noticed some people with pictures of them riding a Segway at Nationals. In the background of a few was a Segway logo banner hung on the side of what looks to be one of the tent walls. Was there some Segway booth that i just missed, or were there some lucky few who were invited to see them. One of my Bomb Squad friends was saying that she was trying to get Dean to let her ride one at SLR but he told her to find him at Nationals he would let her ride one. She never got to ride one because she never found Dean. Im just trying to find out who and how these people got to ride one.
Also, does anyone have any close up pictures of the auctioned “FIRST edition” Segways. I know they were supposed to have a glowing logo on the footpads and a FIRST logo machined onto the handle bars. Does anyone rember the names and occupations of the people who won them. I think i remember reading that one of them was from Texas. I live on one side of Texas and go to college on the other. The 11 hour drive back and forth covers alot of the state. If this person lives in Lubbock, League City, Houston, or anywhere in between I think i may have to go give this person a call.
The Segway tent was only accessible through the VIP tent that was set up southeast(?) of the 3-division competition fields tent. I heard from some folks that they were offering rides to anyone, but when I actually went to the tent they told me they were only demonstrating them (i.e. offering test rides) to people wearing the large VIP badges.
I was given the impression that next year when the consumer model of the Segway is available that test rides may be much more generally available than this year.
The VIP tent was to the imedate left of the “Cortyard of Robots”, where you officaly entered and had the big banner of FIRST. It was closed off only to people with these special tags. When you entered, there was two fountains, one on the left and right, reception desk ahead, and to the left were 4 flat screen TV’s with each division on one of them. Behind the reception desk was tables to eat and a buffet and drinks. There was a small “hall” entrence to the Newton field between the tables and TV’s. That is where the Segway’s were. When you head down the hall to Newton, there are three Segway banners and then an entrence to the Segway demonstration to the right. You head in and there is a big tent. Under it is the Segway logo and some plants. I have video if anybody wants it, I tried posting it on the white papers, but it hasn’t been approved yet or it has been disapproved.
the segway booth was only for vip’s…and my whole team got to ride them, mitch (deans brother) is a teacher at my school and we were talking to bart (deans other brother) about the design of the segway so he let us all ride it
Actually it was John Door that said that, and he was speaking of the 2003 national competition. Unfortunately, I’m a senior and will not be able to go to the nationals next year.
Four of our students got ride the Segway. We were leaving the pits after our matches on Friday and were walking in the parking lot behind the pits when we saw someone on a Segway. The students went up to him and asked what it was like to ride the Segway and he asked if they would like to give a try. So four of our students got take the Segway for spin.
I would like to thank the gentleman who let the students ride the Segway, it helped make the championship a memorable event.
I don’t understand the idea of VIP’s. What makes someone a Very Important Person more important then the students who participated in FIRST, without who, there would be no FIRST. Everyone should have had a chance to ride it. I would not mind waiting a while to ride a Segway. It would like waiting in line to ride Test Track, long but worth it in the end. Oh well, maybe next year.
we want segway! we want segway! we want segway! we want segway! we want segway! we want segway! we want segway! we want segway! we want segway! we want segway…
kinda shows the mentality of some team members (mostly me). i think segway is a coolest things ever. i like everything that it uses, from robotics (yes, it is sort of a robot) to engineering. think about it, if a FIRST team was given the materials and directions, we could probably easily build a segway in a short period of time. granted, dean had to go the long way, but hey, the end result is something that could change the world. sure, it’s a great idea, but it may have limitations in the cities. oh well, time will tell. now, where’s the nearest place i can ride a segway…
yea… i don’t understand this VIP crap… some teams randomly got it? some didn’t? Whats up with that? Its just confuses me… and i’m sure it won’t be long before we see “Nascar Segway” or a Segway in the X-Games… grin those’ll be the days… “Extreme Segway… next on ABC” O well… I still wanna ride one…
Our team was able to ride the segway in Vermont before we even went to any regional events:
The company that’s sponsoring us, Northern Power, gets one of their control modules from a company that builds part of the segway, so tey brought one in for us to ride it. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any pictures, which I thought was stupid since there were already pictures out there of dean riding it etc…
Anyways, it was really cool…
We got questions answered for over an hour and they explained to us in fair detail how it works etc.
Just one question left for me: What happens when the battery runs out? Do you fall over? lol
