"Segway" scooter hot seller on Amazon

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greenfreak

New Member
Segway scooter hot seller online

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) --The self-balancing Segway scooter that has kept technophiles abuzz for the last two years ranks among the best-selling items on Amazon.com's Web site, the online retailer said.

The machine will only be shipped beginning March 2003, but pre-orders already place the high-tech scooter in the top half percent of sales, Steve Frazier, vice president of electronics, tools and kitchen goods sales at Amazon said.

Amazon started taking orders for the Segway last month, requiring a $495 deposit toward the human transporter's price of $4,950, and putting enthusiasts one step closer to riding the much-hyped invention once known only under its development name, "Ginger."

"It's selling better than many of our digital cameras," Frazier said. "If this were ranked in our top items in electronics, it would be in the top five when it first went on sale, and still be among the top 200 out of about 68,000 total products."

Training session included
The brainchild of inventor Dean Kamen, the Segway carries one user standing on a small platform between two side-by-side wheels. Leaning slightly forward moves the scooter forward, leaning back reverses course and turns are made by twisting the handle.

Segway buyers will get a limited edition print to gaze at until their machine arrives, the device itself, a booklet and a training session on how to master it.

Keys to the Segway won't be handed out until new users take the training session, a safety precaution to ensure that they won't hurt themselves or others. Three color-coded keys let users activate the machine in "beginner," "intermediate" or "advanced" mode.

Popular with the urban, techie crowd
Frazier declined to provide actual pre-sale numbers, but said that, as expected, sales were high among early technology buyers and people in urban areas.

The U.S. Postal Service is testing the machines for mail delivery, and more than 30 states have passed laws approving so-called personal mobility devices like the human transporter.

But other states have yet to ease restrictions on urban usage, and in San Francisco a debate is raging over whether the human transporter should be allowed on that city's streets.
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Source: CNN

I don't understand how they can deliver mail with that thing... Don't the drive the little trucks because there's too much to carry?
 
Squiggy

Squiggy

ThunderDick
I've wondered about its practicality too. Other than moving about in vast warehouses or such...Sure looks like fun though..
 
P

PT

Off 'Motherfuckin' Topic Elite
Alot of the local mail carriers don't drive jeeps, they just go from mailbox to mailbox and pick up the next sections mail from there, at least that's what they do in my town. I'd like to try one sometime, I think they look pretty cool, but I don't think it would be practical for me most of the time.
 
Professur

Professur

Well-Known Member
Y'know what's selling up here. That POS Smart car. They were saying on the radio this morning there's a 6 week backlog in orders.
 
G

greenfreak

New Member
What, that little tiny thing? With the amount of SUV's on the road, I would be afraid to drive someething that small.
 
Professur

Professur

Well-Known Member
The price of gas is making people brave. Don't forget that they moved from Ford LTD's to Honda Civics last time they started adding digits to the gas pumps.
 
Winky

Winky

Well-Known Member
Professur said:
last time they started adding digits to the gas pumps.
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*shiver*


Pinto.jpg

pacer.jpg

Pchevette.jpg

P_vega.jpg
 
chcr

chcr

Too cute for words
Winky said:
*shiver*

P_vega.jpg
Click to expand...

Had one. Actually, my problem wasn't the aluminum engine, it was the way the fenders all rusted through in one New York winter.
 
HomeLAN

HomeLAN

New Member
My gramma had one of these:

images


My sister had a Chevette until she blew a water pump and my Dad discovered the maze of "Is it metric or SAE" bolts on the same damned part (along with discovering a variety of new cuss words - and he was ex-military). He refused to ever work on it again, and she sold it. :lol2:
 
Winky

Winky

Well-Known Member
I had a 74 Pinto my buddy a 72 Vega.

Yeppers the combination of the cast iron block
and the aluminum head caused the head gasket to blow.

We fixed it twice
(milling the head each time causing it to ping like a mofo even on premium gas heh heh)
then slammed in a small block 307 and Turbo-Hydramatic 350 Transmission
(with shift kit thank you very much)!

It was a fricken riot, cuz we were poor dumb teenagers,
we didn't replace the front coil springs
so the front-end was nearly draggin'
and we left the stock rear-end in and it wasn’t long before it
blew to smithereens!

But before it died that widdle car could do
the worlds longest right rear tire burn-out imaginable!

Ah funtimes, funtimes.
 
Winky

Winky

Well-Known Member
Wifey-poo was driving a 76 Chevette that she got in78
when I met her in 82!!!

That car was so underpowered that it ran and ran and ran.

Hell, I bet it would still be running today if we'd kept it!

I was in Winslow AZ and the clutch cable broke.
I put it in first gear in the Bashas parking lot, turned the key, road speed\engine synchronize shifted through the gears onto the freeway (I-40) and didn't have to shift
until I stopped at I-17 and Camelback rd. 200miles later hee hee

God that car was 'plain' ...
 
HomeLAN

HomeLAN

New Member
I grew up listening to my grandmother bemoan the fact that she bought a Gremlin and didn't wait for the Pacer to be available. Taught me a lot about setting actual goals, rather than aiming really low.
 
HomeLAN

HomeLAN

New Member
Ca-rist! One good blow-by by a semi, and you're gonna need a tow truck to get you out of the woods.
 
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