Today is June 22nd -The Summer Solstice. The longest day of the year and the shortest night. It's when we the get most direct rays of the sun.
What I want to know is why the winter just keeps getting colder after the Winter Solstice and the weather keep getting hotter after the Summer Solstice. They have the least sunlight and most sunlight respectively. This should be as hot as it gets.
This isn't as big of a deal, holiday wise, as the Winter Solstice or Spring Equinox. Those are celebrations of the cold ending. I'm guessing this one is noted but ignored because they're too busy dealing with the crops to attend a big blowout.
This also marks six months since I got my new Segway i2. It's done just over 1,000 miles with no problems.
I am a bit irked to find that there's no valve stem. You're supposed to replace the wheel instead of reinflate the tire.
It's more stable than the early models. Instead of turning by twisting the handles the whole steering column leans left and right. I thought this would make me feel less secure while riding. You know, by losing that something solid to hold on to. It doesn't feel less secure.
The reason it's more stable is because it calculates left and right leans relative to the center of gravity instead of relative to the Segway platform. So if you're driving along a hill and you lean right to keep yourself vertical the Segway doesn't turn right unless you lean right or left compared to what feels right. Similarly, when you hit a rock or a hole the Segway compensates beautifully. The older models were easy to lose control of when that happened.
And the charging cable is a simple computer cord. If you lose one or want an extra for the office they're cheap and easy to find. Not like if you lose the charger for ... well, anything else.
I do nine miles a day on my Segway. It's my commuter vehicle. Many people think they're too expensive and they're right for most uses. Most people see it at a toy. Something to run out to the store or out to dinner on. It's too expensive for that unless you have a lot of money. But it's not a bad price if you're actually planning to use it. Commuters are good, warehouses, some factories, inside the Pentagon, or if you just have some joint problems and it hurts to walk.
They're good for twenty-four miles per charge. That should get me across DC and back easily. If you live inside the Beltway and work in DC you could probably use one if you have the sidewalks and bike paths to get away with it. No worrying about parking. You can either chain it up like a bike or bring it into your office like I do.
For winter weather I have a snowmobile helmet. The standard Segway doesn't handle snow very well. The x2 has big knobby tires for offroading. I'd love to hear how it handles the snow.
If you want to take a test drive there's a Segway dealer in town (Capitol Segway) that gives tours of DC. Or you can ask nicely and I'll let you try mine. I think Capitol Segway uses the older models for the tours. However, I recommend you buy yours from someone else. I went to these guys to repair my old one and they ripped me off. I told them exactly what was wrong and they fixed all the little things I could have done faster and cheaper myself but didn't fix the actual problem. They wound up mailing it back to HQ for the repairs.
The people at HQ are great. Barbara knows her stuff and knew exactly what my problem was after I told her the symptoms and results of my diagnostics. The guys at Capitol Segway had no idea even after explaining it five times and then telling them what was broken.
I got mine from a dealer in Kansas City. They and a few other dealers have websites you can order from. The Segway HQ doesn't sell them directly, but you can order some parts from them.
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