Segways are nerdy and awkward, there's no way around it. This solowheel, a "self balancing electric unicycle" is just as nerdy as a Segway but slightly less awkward. The Solowheel only weighs 20 pounds and comes in a relatively small package and is definitely no where near as unwieldy as a Segway. Plus, it doesn't come with the reputation of mall cops and weirdos. It's supposed to come out in March for $1,500.
A British businessman who last year bought the company that makes the Segway scooter fell to his death off a cliff in northern England, apparently while riding one of the vehicles on his estate.
West Yorkshire police said in a statement that the body of Jimi Heselden, 62, had been pulled Monday from the River Wharfe near the town of Boston Spa after a call from a passerby.
Local media reports said he was believed to have lost control of his scooter Sunday on a wooded path that runs close to a 30-foot drop to the river.
Heselden bought the New Hampshire-based Segway company in December. The former coal miner made his fortune after losing his job in the widespread mine closures of the mid-1980s. Using his expertise in coal-mining blast methods, he formed a company, Hesco Bastionhttp://www.hesco.com/, which manufactures protective barriers.
The barriers, known as "sand baskets," consist of wire frames with liners that are filled with dirt, sand or rocks. They are considered better than sandbags in protecting against explosions and have been widely adopted by militaries all over the world, including the U.S. military, since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Heselden, said to be worth $265 million, became well known in Yorkshire as a philanthropist who donated to local charities and more recently to a fund to help rehabilitate injured soldiers. Tributes from local and national figures praised him as a generous local hero who never forgot his roots.
British law restricts the use of Segway scooters to private land. The device, invented by Dean Kamen, can travel at a top speed of about 12 mph. In July, a rider was prosecuted for riding one on a sidewalk.
However, the Daily Telegraph reported that Segway sales, which had reached only half the target of 40,000 vehicles last year, had shown a 12% increase for the first six months of this year.
The Segway gives us all the convenience of not having to walk, yet denies us the respect of looking like a functional member of society. If that weren't enough, these extremely ridiculous Segway-ers have taken the Segway's use to a completely new and offensively distasteful level.
By simply leaning, users can make Honda's answer to the Segway, the U3-X, travel in any direction / ReutersSource: Reuters
HONDA has unveiled an electric battery-powered personal transporter, a unicycle shaped like the number eight that riders steer by leaning in the direction they want to travel.
The "U3-X," which Honda will show at the Tokyo Motor Show next month, is the latest to join a growing number of futuristic transportation devices, such as the much bigger Segway.
But while the Segway has been used outdoors and in big buildings, the 65cm tall Honda machine is small enough and light enough to use at home.
Honda's machine has a one-wheeled, "8"-shaped body on which the rider sits and changes direction by leaning forward, backward or sideways.
It moves at a maximum speed of 6km/h, about the pace of brisk walk.
The self-balancing U3-X, weighing in at less than 10kg, is powered by a lithium-ion battery and runs for an hour per charge.
Honda Chief Executive Takanobu Ito said the machine could one day become the smallest means of transportation for human beings, though it is purely in the development stage and the automaker has no plans to start selling them now.
Mr Ito said the U3-X's small size would make it an ideal indoor transport device.
"If my legs get a little weak, I would like to have this around in my house. It's easy to move around," the 56-year-old CEO said.
Segway inventor Dean Kamen is developing a hybrid electric scooter that can run on almost anything that burns.
According to the patent, the bike has a small two-piston Stirling engine right under the seat. Though with an engine of that size, it really isn’t going to provide much juice - not much more than 5bhp.
A Stirling engine is based on tech which predates internal combustion engines by almost 100 years. It’s kinda like a steam engine in the sense that it uses external combustion. They use pistons for the crankshaft, but unlike the alternatives they have no valves for no gas ever enters or leaves the cylinders.
Since there is no need for a fuel to be injected, it can run on almost anything that burns - everything from wood chips to old Barbies. This really opens the door for renewable fuel technologies and the standards they would have to meet.
With the engine’s low output, it won’t provide much of the bike’s performance on its own. But it can keep the rechargeable battery packs, which are located in the floor of the bike, topped off. Those reserves can be used for an extra kick in the pants!
Multimillionaire Kamen has already sunk more than $50 million into developing the Stirling engine technology.
A prototype of the bike has yet to be seen unlike Kamen’s Stirling-engined car. Though, rumor has it that Kamen rides one around his own estate.
A version of the Th!ink City also uses a Stirling Engine
But Kamen isn’t the only one looking at the Stirling as a viable solution. Honda has patented concepts using the Stirling to extract more power from a conventional internal combustion engine. Yah, say that three times fast. Other applications include autonomous robots for the US military that can “feed” themselves to remain active for years.
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
Casey Chan —
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