Segway Blog continued

OK, here is the UNCOOL part:

On my first commute, I was in an area with no sidewalk and no real bike lane, so I was up on some rough gravel beside the road, just cruising along. We had just had some rains the weekend before (this was Monday 3-13-2006) and the ground under the gravel was a little muddy. No problem, because the gravel was giving the Segway enough traction to operate normally. Or so I thought.

I approached this area where the gravel thinned out and I did not really notice it until the Segway started to slip and by then it was TOO late. I tried to lean back and slow the speed, but the tires slipped and OFF I FLEW. I actually had slowed down to about 5 to 8 mph at the time, so I merely took a step left and off the Segway platform, while the Segway itself crashed to the ground HANDLEBAR first into the mud.

When I looked over at the Segway after I had recovered myself, I saw the plastic handlebar bezel FLY off and land about 10 feet in front of the Segway. First indication of bad news. When I looked back at the Segway itself, it was doing the "flashing beeping emergency shutdown" routine and I noticed a detail with HORROR: The handlebar had BROKEN almost directly in the middle. I almost crapped my pants. I had just bought this thing three days before, and I already broke a major part. I was incredulous, disbelieving, surprised, and SHOCKED.