Overload motor and consequence?

[Don Sparlin]

Thanks for all the input. All good. I am now of the opinion that it is operator panic error. When an incident causes me to lose my balance, I instinctively grab the LeanStear control for balance. Of course, the result is to ask for more front/back/turn and down I go.

How am I to learn when to release my death grip and step off? My reaction time is no longer so quick and lively.

Have completed a drain and recharge with good times for both. I will get back out there as soon as the garden is in and ride on flat and smooth. Boring, since the nature trail is down hill. Everywhere is either downhill or uphill from my hobbit hole. Next task is to measure the actual slope of the last uphill toss. Maybe I will try the switchback path to the top.

Regards to all trying to help. This may be an example of the Darwin Effect.

Don Sparlin

[dale@thecoys.net]

Experience will help a lot. We usually start "beginners" out on a reasonably-flat street surface, with a winding course formed with traffic cones.

Of course, there's also "turtle mode".

But gliding with a few more-experienced gliders would also be beneficial.

[Tritium]

If you feel that the terrain or situation you are approching or have entered may yield bad results, step off.
You likely wouldn't wait until your car sunk in quicksand to get out, would you?
The same applies to any vehicle.

[dale@thecoys.net]

Originally Posted by Tritium

If you feel that the terrain or situation you are approching or have entered may yield bad results, step off.

Easily said, but difficult to do. Don already feels that getting on a Segway "may yield bad results".

[KSagal]

Don,

Do you ride horses? How about piloting a boat or plane? Do you ski?

There are lots of ways to approach riding a segway.

I liken the action on a segway to skiing. You have to anticipate the move, and you have to commit your whole body to the turn or maneuver, not just your hands or arms...

For me, when I drive a car, or operate many mechanical devices, the vast majority of the learning curve is how to manipulate the controls, and how to 'master' the machine.

When you ride horses, as opposed to dirt bikes, you have to learn to get along with the horse as well as teach the horse what you want to do, and how you expect the horse to do it.

When you drive a car, you have a lane you are supposed to be in. I you are 10 feet off from that lane, you may have a real problem, either for yourself, or for others on the road. Turns are clear and specific, movement is succinct.

When you pilot a boat or airplane, the lanes are not so tight. The turns are not so succinct, but rather are sloppy, and have a lot of drift. You have to learn to aim the boat or plane, like a car, but you also have to deal with wind and current, with air or water conditions, and much more. Being 10 feet off from where you expected to be, is a far different situation.

When you ski, you carve the turns, and use your whole body to turn, you lean, you twist, and do much more, yet your path is not so clear and tight, it is more of a symbiotic movement with input from the snow surface, from gravity, from the shape of the slope itself. Here 10 feet off from your chosen path can again be a real problem or may mean nothing at all.

I think of my segway as less a machine I need to master, less a machine I need to force under my control. and more of a partnership with a very smart device. I feel a very Zen kind of communication with my segway. We do things, I do things, much more by considering the segway and extension of my body, more so than a device I must master...

There is no substitute for experience. We can all tell you many things, but unless you ride, you will not get it.

My suggestion is to ride daily when you can, and start slow and easy. Keep it to relatively level surfaces, and to moderate speeds. After you are comfortable with more, go for grass and other less perfect surfaces. Watch your times and speeds. As you have more experience, you will have more levels of success.

Have fun. Keep trying...