[KSagal]

Ray-Ner

Excellent thoughts, well presented...

I might offer some considerations...

ON your concept of an immediate shut down, based on forward motion and no rider detects...

Many times I ride, and a void comes upon me... I consider a void the opposite of a bump. (A pot hole, a drop off a curb, the far side of a speed bump, etc) and when encountering those times, the segway can fall away from my feet, for a very short time. (Less than a second) If the shutdown were to occur at times like that, when I landed on the seg, it would have the tires going too slow, and my forward momentum would cause a 12 mph faceplant. I believe this to be worse than your mishap.

Regarding your mishap, I read your account of the event, and have a question and a guess, followed by a suggestion...

You stated that the wheels still had forward motion, and that the left wheel was off the ground. From your description, you were on the ground as well. Since only one wheel was on the ground, and both were spinning, long enough for someone nearby to run to your aid, I wonder why the seg was not traveling in circles? It must have had the left (airborn) wheel spinning and the right wheel skidding on the pavement.

You may or may not know, the segway will do an immediate shutdown if tipped over too far sideways. It seems to me that your machine must have been very close to falling over sideways as it was, all you had to do was lay it over the rest of the way, and it would have done two things... your foot would have come clear, and the machine would have shut down right away...

On your second concept of having a power assist, similar to the gen one machines, but in reverse of the standard lean=direction...

Using your plan, you engage your lean forward, move backward plan, you lean the leansteer a bit towards yourself as you stand behind your machine, as it is at the bottom of the ramps. It starts up the ramps...(So far I am with you) ... As the machine goes further up the ramp, the lean on the machine increases till the machine is basically horizontal when it is fully in the car... With your plan, as the seg climbs the ramp, and the lean steer is closer and closer to horizontal, the seg will increase in speed. By the time the seg base gets to the top of the ramp, it would be entering the car at 12 + mph! I would think this requires a very large foam pad at the seats...

What I do with my i2... (By the way I have an e-167 and an i2) with the i2, I use riderless balance mode to start the seg about 6 inches to a foot up the ramp. I then shut it down, while behind the seg, and just lower the leansteer frame to horizontal, and push the seg into the car like I would a lawnmower...

One thing that I have found, the transisition from the pavement to the ramp with no power is fairly hard, and much harder than just climbing the ramps, so I do not power down on the ground, but first make that transition from level pavement to inclined ramp, before I start using my own arm power...

I have also seen tapes of, and heard of others removing the lean steer frame, or the top half of it, depending on the size of the car, and then letting just the frame climb the ramps while in balance mode, without the leansteer frame... The base is well balanced, and will do this with no problem...

I do not remove the leansteer frame mostly because I am too lazy, but also because I have an SUV that I use...

I hope some of my considerations will add to your view on these topics, and you should try some of my suggestions, and they will hopefully serve you well, as they have done for me...