"Commander Kinsey" wrote in message
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I tried one, once, I couldn't stay on it. I see countless Youtube videos
of people falling off them. But why? If you are about to fall over
backwards, shouldn't it feel the tilt of your feet and simply roll under
your centre of gravity? It should be impossible to fall off.

Is this two wheels inline (like a bicycle) or two wheels side by side on the
same axis (a Segway)?

I had chance to ride a Segway through Corunna in Portugal on an organised
tour. It took a few minutes of riding on the flat before I felt sort-of
confident, and then when I thought I was doing OK I had to do an emergency
stop, over-corrected and fell off. The trickiest part was getting on or off;
once I was on and balanced, I was fine. After about half an hour I felt
pretty confident: the guide took us through streets that had a lot of
pedestrians (but no cars!) and I was able to ride safely around them. When
we stopped for a rest and to let the slower ones catch up, I managed to make
the Segway turn about its midpoint, with one wheel going forwards and the
other one going backwards.

The Segway does have a big advantage over things like this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:R...ding_on_it.png
in that it has a handlebar that you can hold onto and move from side to side
to steer. Steering purely by adjusting your weight on the two footrests
presumably takes a bit more practice.

Now all we need is for our H&S-obsessed government to license Segways for
use on either pavements or roads (whichever they choose): why do other
countries think they are OK (as long as people are responsible) whereas in
Britain the attitude is "no way - not *anywhere* that isn't your own private
land".