YOU’D have to have been living under a rock not to have heard of a little company called Segway. Well, not so little these days. From its humble beginnings at the turn of the century, Segway has taken its radical electric self-balancing personal transporter worldwide. It’s been so successful that it was recently bought by Summit Strategies Investments, a company that has a long record of investing in solid companies with strong brands that offer the market real value.
Simply Moving Forward Philippines Inc. (Segway Philippines) has partnered with Club Intramuros and is offering the use of Segways as personal transportation for golfers in lieu of a golf cart. The Segway is a remarkable piece of engineering.
Unlike a car, the Segway only has two wheels—it looks something like an ordinary hand truck—yet it manages to stay upright by itself.
To move forward or backward on the Segway, the rider just leans slightly forward or backward. To turn left or right, the rider turns the right handlebar forward or backward.
This balancing act is the most amazing thing about the Segway, and it is the key to its operation. To understand how this system works, it helps to consider Segway inventor Doug Kamen’s model for the device—the human body.
If you stand up and lean forward, so that you are out of balance, you probably won’t fall on your face. Your brain knows you are out of balance, because fluid in your inner ear shifts, so it triggers you to put your leg forward and stop the fall. If you keep leaning forward, your brain will keep putting your legs forward to keep you upright. Instead of falling, you walk forward, one step at a time.
The Segway does pretty much the same thing, except it has wheels instead of legs, a motor instead of muscles, a collection of microprocessors instead of a brain and a set of sophisticated tilt sensors instead of an inner-ear balancing system. Like your brain, the Segway knows when you are leaning forward. To maintain balance, it turns the wheels at just the right speed, so you move forward.
The Segway HT has five gyroscopic sensors, though it only needs three to detect forward and backward pitch, as well as leaning to the left or right (termed “roll”). The extra sensors add redundancy, to make the vehicle more reliable. Additionally, the Segway has two tilt sensors filled with electrolyte fluid. Like your inner ear, this system figures out its own position relative to the ground based on the tilt of the fluid surface.
The most high-profile applications for the Segway have been at the Ayala Malls which now require a minimum of two Segways for all their commercial centers. But now they’ve set their sights on a broader market—us, the consumers.
The units stationed at Club Intramuros are the brawnier X2 variants. These have bigger, all-terrain tires and certainly feel like they could go anywhere over any surface. They’re fitted with a mount for the golf bag, which sits on the right side of the rider. The X2 copes with the extra weight like it isn’t even there. The cost of all this to the golfer? Just P700.
If you want to experience the Segway with friends or family who aren’t golfers, Segway offers guided tours of Intramuros using the cart paths of the golf course. The first phase of the tour is around the 18 holes of Club Intramuros Golf Course. As the tour progresses, the tour guides will give information about the different points of interests that can be seen from the golf course. Stops will be taken along the way out of pedestrian traffic for photos with rests at scenic spots where Segways are allowed and back to the bike path/walkway toward your original destination. Routes heading back will be determined based on pedestrian traffic and time left in the tour. The half-hour tour will set you back P1,500, while the full hour tour is P2,000.
If you want to experience a Segway and golf or just take a historic tour of the walled city of Intramuros without tiring yourself out unduly, head down to Club Intramuros and prepare to have the time of your life.