My father won a Segway tour of Chicago and took me along. The tour was offered by City Segway Tours. The tour left from the company’s Randolf Street office and meandered through Grant Park all the way down to Soldier Field. I had been wanting to ride a Segway ever since they came out and this opportunity was perfect to do that and see the great city of Chicago!
The model we rode was the Segway PT, which appears to be a variant of the i2. It took 10 or 15 minutes for everyone in our group to get accustomed to getting on and maneuvering the vehicles. We started out in “turtle mode”, which limits the speed to a modest crawl. Once we had the feel of the vehicles, we went into standard mode. We could have gone up to 10 miles per hour, but that wasn’t too practical in Grant Park. Our guide said that the vehicles could go up to 24 miles and the battery would last up to nine hours under typical use.
The Segway is a great way to get around – provided you don’t have to go over any large curbs. Tall obstacles are best negotiated by getting off and manually pushing or pulling the Segway over. I also found that your legs really feel all of the bumps along the way. All in all, though, a Segway offers a smooth ride, easy maneuverability and super quiet operation.
Check out the video of our adventure below.
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