[Doomsday]

Hi all, New to the forum. (Warning... Long story ahead lol) I am 51 years old and have had the mini S for a couple days now. My first-day experience was 3 attempts to stand on it and 3 failures ending up with me hitting the floor hard. Now, I probably need to explain my situation.

About 6 years ago I had a stroke. It screwed up my left side bad, in fact, I could barely move that arm or leg an inch. 6-7 years later, I now have about 30% usage on that side. I have drop foot in that leg, I have some stiffness of the limbs on that side and well, I have been looking for a last mile solution for a couple years now. I really thought I was going to end up buying a scooter but after lime came to our city and put them everywhere, the city seems to have become less friendly towards them do to how inconsiderate people are with them. Finally, I ended up looking at the segway minis and watched lots of videos and thought, man that looks much easier than the scooters or cheap hoverboards and so I opened a new tab in chrome, went to Amazon and 2 days later, I had a brand new mini sitting in my living room. I also ordered a handlebar for as well.

Ok, got it put together and didn't put the handlebar on it as I wanted to try and learn how to use it with the kneebar first. I didn't last 3 seconds. I went sailing forward flat on my face in my living room. After struggling to get up (It aint easy with only 30% of your left side working correctly), I rested for a minute and made attempt number two. this time I was ejected forward again but not as violently but still ended up on the floor. So after a long rest with now, a carpet burned knee and elbow, I decide once more to try it. This final attempt for the day lasted about 1.5 seconds, ejected me from the rear, landing me flat on my back with me actually hitting my head on the floor. At this point, the only thing I could think of was I just made the biggest mistake of my life purchasing this thing.

So, on day 2 I decided to take a slightly different approach. This time I used my cane to help balance me while getting on it and bingo, I was now standing steadily on it with my cane no longer touching the ground. I then proceeded to do the tutorial and did everything it asked. Here is where I found my next issue. Turns out, I can turn left with ease using my right knee, however, turning right is damn near impossible because that leg doesn't like to twist that direction well. Time to put the handlebars on.

Ok, so now have the handlebars on the mini, I can get on and off with ease without needing my cane. I can easily turn in all directions using my arms and proceeded to unlock the rest of the speed limiter riding circles, figure 8s, etc, in my living room lol. After about 30 minutes of riding, I felt much more confident although I had noticed something that just didn't feel right. I have an area rug in the living room so its a small lip dropping from the rug to the hardwood. Every time I hit that, it always makes me feel wobbly. By that, I feel like I did the first time getting on the thing. It's only for that brief millisecond but after having 3 falls now, It terrifies me. Now comes fall number 4. There is a gap going from my living room into the kitchen. It actually raises about 1/4-1/2 inch. In fact we even added a tiny ramp to it to make it easier to push my daughters' wheelchair over it. So, I remembered videos saying not to take bumps to slow so while I felt like I was flying, it probably was only 1-2mph. I hit it, I was now in the kitchen but I wobbled and the mini went straight ahead and I fell backward into the living room on my back again. Declaring defeat, that was the end of riding for the day. Well, not really, I did attempt to ride it about an hour later around the living room but now I had lost all confidence.

Ok, so today is day 5 of owning the mini. I have not attempted to go into the kitchen again, that ground just hots way too hard lol. I took it out to my driveway today. My driveway is asphalt, however, its not very smooth. it's breaking up, there are spots that are just dirt now, and so I am of course freaked out. I was able to ride on my driveway at probably 2-3 mph but I felt everything. I can feel the waves in what should be smooth but actually isn't and I can feel that right wheel dropping lower than the left and of course, freaks me out. All these videos of people riding these things practically anywhere, make it look so easy but in reality, it is extremely nerve-racking, at least for me.

I'm really determined that I want to make this work but I'm not sure how to proceed to get over feeling the need to react to every little bump or slight dropoff. I have been trying to play around with speed, I'm thinking that I'm moving too slowly, thus exaggerating the feeling when hitting these ever so slight obstacles. Any advice? Am I to far gone with the stroke and limited reaction time of my left side? Did I pick the wrong device for my personal transporter? If so, are there better options?

I did look at the elite but felt that one would be harder for me to get in and out of my car and if it requires a lot of effort just to get out, I just know that I probably wouldn't use it a lot. Which brings me to my final question. Parking. How do you secure your minis outside when you have reached your destination? I can't imagine leaving it sitting anywhere outside unsecured as it would be stolen in a heartbeat. The app locking just seems to be a gimmick. If you can reset the device by holding it upside down and powering it on, what good does the app locking really do? Thanks for taking the time to read all this, I told you it was going to be long lol.

Thanks!