Is there life in Segway i2 ownership?
 

I remember how excited I was when I purchased my new i2 in 2013. it was right before the i2 SE came out the following year. It was a lot of money (over $6,000) but it was so much fun when I rented one in Big Bear CA I felt like I had to have one. I even purchased the book GINGER and read about the beginnings of Segway.

Today, six years later the dealer I bought it from is sadly long gone. I see people selling their I2s for a fraction of what they bought them for, still without any, or many buyers.

I think the i2 Segway, and the previous models like the 167 are what I consider real Segways and not less expensive Chinese versions. Please I don’t mean to offend anyone but personally it’s just the way I see it.

Now the name Segway seems to be sputtering along just staying alive. In some ways Segway now carries a negative connotation like in the weird Al Yankovic music video. I think the full sized Segway was one of the most enjoyable inventions ever. What happened?


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Quality.
 

Well, the original Segways were (and current models are), compared to todays offerings, in the main better quality and more technically sophistocated. The old adage still holds... "you get what you pay for"; like so many retail items available in todays consumer society; there is good and bad.
Quality usually costs more, or at least that has been my experience over many years. I still have many quality items functioning as well as the day they were purchased. Maintenance helps items last as well as avoiding abuse.
Overall, I think there is much more life left in my i2 and I am therefore not about to rush out to acquire an inferior product just to keep up with or be "one of the Jones".
Happy with my 2006 model i2 and very glad to have acquired it. It is simply just pure fun to glide.
:)

All correct....Also as far as we know there is no redundancy in the ninebot line of personal transportation devices!

Personal Transporters were supposed to revolutionize 'human transport' but sadly, Dean was an engineer and he never hired a 'bean counter'. The result was engineering run amok, which gave you the most high quality, technical solution to every single problem, cost be damned. This resulted in a VERY sophisticated machine, but at a cost few could afford. Dean had done this once before, when he built a $25K wheel chair that almost nobody who needed it could afford

The used market is finally getting machine prices down to where they're affordable for most of us. After taking a Seg tour in Nashville 3 or 4 years ago, my wife and I got to serously thinking about buying a pair of Segs, which we would NEVER have contemplated at the new $6K price point. We now own 3 I2's, all bought at bargain basement used prices. The last one we bought was a 79 mile almost new machine that we paid $1500 for . . . . and it came with one brand new battery and one older, still serviceable battery. The first two we bought together for $3,500 and one of them only had about 800 miles on it. Both had older, but still good batteries. Over the past few years we collected several 2014 and newer batteries as we found good deals on them and sold our older but still serviceable batteries for nearly enough to cover the cost of the newer ones

So, yes, there is still 'life' in I2 ownership - Especially at today's prices. There is still nothing like a 'real' Segway . . . . and now, most of us can finally afford to play!

Don

Trigger . . .
 

Trigger, my 2006 X2 is still kickin', "Blinky" is on and it's 2019. Machine was built to last and it has. Not so much for the InfoKeys as I've gone through 10 or more. Can't say anything about newer items, don't need one as Trigger is working good. Glide on!!!

Im glad to see some i2 chit chat around here. kudos to you Steve807, i feel the same. I saw your post awhile back about your enjoyment at the Segway Tour of Solvang. Im not far from there in San Luis Obispo, CA. I have an i2, and (2) x2's and just love 'em.

Sadly, it looks like the Solvang shop closed up a couple months ago. I heard the owner moved, but he's certainly not the only closure, and sadly it really does just feel like a dying breed. I dont really know why. I always get double takes, and plenty of questions of interest whenever I glide. I know it never caught on to begin with, but 12 years later, I could imagine once your batteries go, not to many would be willing to shell out another $2000 to get Blinky back :eek:

Is there life in Segway i2 ownership?
 

Wow, the Segway shop in Solvang closed? Now I’m really sad. Most shops in the past would let you take their tours for free if you brought your own Segway but I specifically wanted to rent from the shop to help support it when I took the tour for my birthday. I could tell the guy who leads the tours for the shop really believed in Segway and he made an effort to make my tour special by taking me places that were not standard on the tour. He even shot a video of me on my Segway using my phone and sadly the video got erased when I had issues with my phone and it was accidentally reset. I have his business card and will make sure to keep it to remember how much fun I had. Since I owned an i2 and his shop had the i2 SE I was able to ask him all kinds of questions about the differences between the two models that I’ve always wanted to ask. I’m glad I gave him a good tip to show how much I appreciated his tour.

TahoeJoe, I live in the Los Angeles area but stay at The Apple Farm in SLO at least once a year because I enjoy the area so much. In fact my Segway tour in Solvang came about because I stopped there on my way to the Apple Farm and further on to Morrow Bay. Beautiful area.

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Cool, nice pics, so you do know SLO?! It is awesome! I moved up here 20 years ago from LA. Couldn't take the LA traffic anymore! Apple farm and Madonna Inn are two old time, old school favorites. We got three new hotels up here this year, yes three! Gimme a ping next time your up and I'll glide you around:D

HHmm, I kinda like the sound of that--glide guide

100%.
I too just got back an i2 (STUPIDly) traded in mine a few years ago for a miniPro S which subsequently got stolen :-(.
Glad to see others getting back into it. If anyone has any thoughts for old p133 tires, that'd be awesome (revicing some gen 1 machines as well.
Cheers everyone!