Put your stomach into it

This is a Segway X-2, capable of hauling otherwise poorly coordinated folk around an island under battery power - oh so green technology that's actually fun to ride. It's really quite fascinating, in that an onboard gyroscope is perfectly attuned to the riders body and will follow the slightest hint of direction. Closest thing I can relate it to was a Honda 50 from my youth, where you'd lean into the turns while moving the handlebars. The Segway, at $7,000 new and far more expensive than the classic Honda step-thru, does not have a kickstand. You simply find a slight uphill rise and point it in that direction, and like a well behaved horse it simply waits for you to remount. It also has a speed adjustment, which the tour guides waited till we were all doing OK, then asked if we wanted to "dial it up". No doubt the battery life was longer in the extended mode, but changing that speed dial made it VERY interesting and fun to ride. I had seen Segways on nearby islands, and in downtown Sarasota, as well as other Florida cities - at this point they're pretty much the province of tour operators and shopping mall security cops, but they may catch on. My wife said she'd love to have one, although it does tend to negate the exercise value of a bicycle.

To operate, simply step aboard and place your feet evenly spaced apart, with heel and toe equidistant from both ends of the floorboard. Grasping the mountain bike styled handlebars, lean your body forward to advance, tilt slightly backward to retreat. The stalk that supports the handlebars is like a joystick, and you can tilt it right to turn in that direction, or conversely tilt left for a counter-clockwise turn. By leaning and steering, you'd be surprised of the tight turning radius of this device. It helps to be completely stopped while dismounting - I watched a 275 pound ex-Army Captain put his in a ditch by cowboy riding. It took the tour operator and this large veteran to muscle it out of this deep ditch. Apparently he didn't follow directions to shift your weight to your heels to stop. The machine tends to encourage good posture, and your supposed to lean your otherwise ramrod straight body, but as you can see from the picture, I was using my own natural beer ballast to really throw myself into the adventure.

The first iteration of the Segway had one handlebar fixed and the other able to shift forward and backward - kind of like the Shimano gears on my bike. The X-2 eliminated that feature and made the machine even more intuitive, so clearly with a Segway "the horse knows the way" and all you have do do is steer with your body. In the one hour I rode it, I got to the point where I had one hand free to shoot video - which I'm not putting on the blog as it takes forever and a day to load up. Trust me, it's an easy skill set to master and I'd recommend all who can try it once or twice - the most fun you can have with your clothes on.