Segway climbs Mt Washington



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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/32548.html

"Segway owners can now proudly say that one of their own has climbed a mountain, after a circus
clown dressed as a butler pulled off the feat earlier today.

Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP
reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test. The
team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the 6,288-foot
mountain summit."

12.5 MPH - 7.6 miles - 2.5 HOURS?
 
<[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/32548.html
>
> "Segway owners can now proudly say that one of their own has climbed a mountain, after a circus
> clown dressed as a butler pulled off the feat earlier today.
>
> Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP
> reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test. The
> team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the 6,288-foot
> mountain summit."
>
> 12.5 MPH - 7.6 miles - 2.5 HOURS?

Endurance test? Endurance of boredom, maybe.

--Josh
 
Mon, 01 Sep 2003 17:45:45 GMT, <[email protected]>, "Josh Gatts"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
><[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/32548.html
>>
>> "Segway owners can now proudly say that one of their own has climbed a mountain, after a circus
>> clown dressed as a butler pulled off the feat earlier today.
>>
>> Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP
>> reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test.
>> The team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the
>> 6,288-foot mountain summit."
>>
>> 12.5 MPH - 7.6 miles - 2.5 HOURS?
>
>Endurance test? Endurance of boredom, maybe.
>
>--Josh
>
"The road climbs 4,727 feet from its base off Route 16 outside Gorham,
N.H. The average grade is 12 percent, with extended sections at 18 percent, and the last 100 yards
at 22.5 percent. The top third of the road is not paved. There are 72 turns, with the longest
straightaway only three- tenths of a mile, on dirt." (1998)

Of 538 cyclists this year, the fastest finisher posted 0:51:05. The slowest was 3:32:30.

The fastest tandem was 1:22:08. Good for 109th place.

At 2:30:01, the Segway would have finished around 518th place, or :18:36 behind 70 year-old
Steve Swenson.
--
zk
 
David Kerber wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
>
>>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/32548.html
>>
>>"Segway owners can now proudly say that one of their own has climbed a mountain, after a circus
>>clown dressed as a butler pulled off the feat earlier today.
>>
>>Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP
>>reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test. The
>>team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the 6,288-foot
>>mountain summit."
>>
>>12.5 MPH - 7.6 miles - 2.5 HOURS?
>
>
> Maybe 12.5 is the speed they were moving when actually moving, not counting the time lost changing
> batteries and waiting for the wind to die down? Or is 12.5 a Segway's max speed on the level?
>

Yes, 12.5 is the software controled max speed. Going uphill, it can't do anywhere near that. Just a
**** poor writer. Let's see, 7.6 miles in 2.5 hours and six batteries, that's 1.26 miles per battery
charge at three miles per hour, walking speed. Yeah, I'm going to fork out five grand for a Segway!
Seems appropriate that it was a clown driving it.

Lorenzo L. Love http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory after the war, I am certain that
had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like the dinosaur in the tar pit -- we would still be
there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of the occupation. This is a
burden I am sure the beleaguered American taxpayer would not have been happy to take on." -Norman
Schwarzkopf, from his 1993 autobiography It Doesn't Take a Hero.
 
In article <[email protected]>, news-
[email protected] says...
>
> <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/32548.html
> >
> > "Segway owners can now proudly say that one of their own has climbed a mountain, after a circus
> > clown dressed as a butler pulled off the feat earlier today.
> >
> > Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP
> > reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test.
> > The team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the
> > 6,288-foot mountain summit."
> >
> > 12.5 MPH - 7.6 miles - 2.5 HOURS?
>
> Endurance test? Endurance of boredom, maybe.

Well, the main rider was a clown, so I guess it fits!

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.
 
Oky, segway has now had its 15 minutes of fame, can we drop them as a topic? NOW? Forever??

<[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/32548.html
>
> "Segway owners can now proudly say that one of their own has climbed a mountain, after a circus
> clown dressed as a butler pulled off the feat earlier today.
>
> Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP
> reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test. The
> team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the 6,288-foot
> mountain summit."
>
> 12.5 MPH - 7.6 miles - 2.5 HOURS?
 
"Lorenzo L. Love" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Let's see, 7.6 miles in 2.5 hours and six batteries, that's 1.26 miles per battery charge at three
> miles per hour, walking speed.

I don't walk 3mph up a 1-in-8 grade.

Hillclimb events are not exactly the intended purpose for the Segway, either. This was a stunt, like
those folks who ride scooters in the Iron Butt motorcycle rally just to show it can be done. I'm not
impressed with the machine's performance, but I'm a little impressed that it finished without a
breakdown.

Chalo Colina
 
Chalo wrote:
> "Lorenzo L. Love" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Let's see, 7.6 miles in 2.5 hours and six batteries, that's 1.26 miles per battery charge at three
>>miles per hour, walking speed.
>
>
> I don't walk 3mph up a 1-in-8 grade.
>
> Hillclimb events are not exactly the intended purpose for the Segway, either. This was a stunt,
> like those folks who ride scooters in the Iron Butt motorcycle rally just to show it can be done.
> I'm not impressed with the machine's performance, but I'm a little impressed that it finished
> without a breakdown.
>
> Chalo Colina

You're impressed that it can go 7.6 miles with out breaking down? You impress easy.

Lorenzo L. Love http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory after the war, I am certain that
had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like the dinosaur in the tar pit -- we would still be
there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of the occupation. This is a
burden I am sure the beleaguered American taxpayer would not have been happy to take on." -Norman
Schwarzkopf, from his 1993 autobiography It Doesn't Take a Hero.
 
How did they achieve battery changes? I bet they had a car riding behind. Shouldn't the story title
be a "Segway with the aid of a 100+hp gas burning motor climbed Mt Washington"?

<[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/32548.html
>
> "Segway owners can now proudly say that one of their own has climbed a mountain, after a circus
> clown dressed as a butler pulled off the feat earlier today.
>
> Rob Owen, a retired clown, and two other riders surged up Mount Washington at 12.5 mph, the AP
> reports. It took the Segway riders two and half hours to complete the 7.6 mile endurance test. The
> team used six batteries, fought off 50 mph winds and battled bitter cold to reach the 6,288-foot
> mountain summit."
>
> 12.5 MPH - 7.6 miles - 2.5 HOURS?
 
"Lorenzo L. Love" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Chalo wrote:
>
> > I'm not impressed with the machine's performance, but I'm a little impressed that it finished
> > without a breakdown.
>
> You're impressed that it can go 7.6 miles with out breaking down? You impress easy.

It's not the mileage, it's the 2 1/2 hours at full output torque.

Most things with electric motors don't do so well when used to deliver all the torque they have
without interruption. You'd cook a cordless drill if you tried it, or a blender. They get hot faster
than they can cool off until the thermal protection cuts the power or else they just burn up.
Electric bikes and scooters do the same if you point them uphill long enough.

I'd guess that there is some relatively sophisticated power/thermal management in the Segway,
because I am told by Dean Kamen that the motors' peak output is 5kW. That's enough to zip uphill at
quite a clip, and more than enough to burn the sucker to the ground if not controlled. I bet the
thing was backing off the power all the way up the mountain just to stay cool.

Chalo Colina
 
On Wed, 03 Sep 2003 04:53:07 GMT, "ride your bike" <[email protected]> wrote:

>How did they achieve battery changes? I bet they had a car riding behind. Shouldn't the story title
>be a "Segway with the aid of a 100+hp gas burning motor climbed Mt Washington"?

Or a guy running up the mountain behind the Segway, with 100 pounds of batteries in a backpack?
 
"Marian Rosenberg" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Sorni wrote:
> > <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> >
> >>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/32548.html
> >>
> >>"Segway owners can now proudly say that one of their own has climbed a mountain, after a circus
> >>clown dressed as a butler pulled off the feat earlier today.
> >
> >
> > You'd think a clown would have more dignity than that.
> >
> > Bill "if you're able-bodied, PROPEL YOURSELF" S.
>
> not everyone is able bodied.

Hence the use of the word "if".

Bill "was it that unclear?" S.
 
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