Shropshire Star

Pictures and video: Rip-roaring rally is a Segway to heaven

Kneepads, elbow pads, strap-on helmet. Wearing nearly as much safety kit as an American footballer, it's time to rock.

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It's the Segway rally at Weston Park where a group of novices are learning how to race the popular portable transportation devices.

Fans of Segways include cricketer Kevin Pietersen, former Montgomeryshire MP Lembit Opik and ex-US President George W Bush.

And now there is a healthy trade in 'Segway experiences' with the curious paying for sessions on the machines, including courses starting this week at Weston Park.

  • Jimi Heselden invented the Segway – but tragically died when he lost control of his machine and fell from a cliff in Yorkshire

  • The Segway HT’s top speed is 12.5 mph

  • Segway Polo is just like regular polo, except the players ride Segways instead of horses.

  • Weston Park is one of the newest venues used by Segway Events, which plans to return to the grounds of the mansion at Weston-under-Lizard, near Shifnal, around six times a year

  • Experiences typically cost £20 for a 30-minute taster session, £34 for a one-hour session including all-terrain riding. Group bookings are available.[/breakout]

They only have a top speed of 7mph, but Segways feel surprisingly lively. And these are not just any old Segways, they are Segway X2 all-terrain vehicles, tailor-made for the gruelling test route we are about to navigate.

The principles behind Segway riding are simple enough. Lean on the front of the twin pedals to go forwards, bury your heel on the back of them to reverse.

Stopping is the tricky part: you have to apply equal pressure to the front and back of the pedals. It requires quite a delicate sense of balance.

Also slightly un-nerving is the advice to look down at the wheels when riding the Segway, rather than looking at the route ahead. As Usain Bolt found to his cost at the World Championships in China, it is easy to clip a hazard and find the Segway spiralling out of control.

"When you are riding a Segway, you are wider than you think," instructor Gareth Burns said during the taster session at Weston Park, near Shifnal. "If you do not keep an eye on your wheels, you will clip each other, trees will jump out at you, and you will fly over the handlebars, Superman style. It will be hilarious."

Mark Andrews taking part in a Segway rally at Weston Park.

Anthony Nash, aged 24, and Lottie Pschengckyj, both of Sinclair Gardens, Ketley, Telford are among those taking part. They are celebrating Lottie's 21st birthday and wanted to try a new experience.

"We've never done anything like it before," says Lottie, who works at Pandora in Telford.

Hilary Prosser, 61, from Malvern has attended with her husband David 60. Initially Hilary is a little reluctant about the test run and asks to go last, but she soon develops an aptitude for it.

Anyway, once we have mastered the basics, it is time for things to get competitive.

"You fancy being team captain, Mark?" says Gareth.

"Yeah, why not?"

Mark Andrews taking part in a Segway rally at Weston Park

Leading the line for the opposing team is 22–year-old Kelly Wright, who has travelled from Warwickshire for the experience. She flies out of the traps like greased lightning and is half-way around the course before I've even got started.

How did she manage that? Kelly insists she has never done it before. Right, now it's war. Yet no matter how hard I lean on the forward pedal, I can't go fast enough to make up the lost ground. By the time I tag the next member of our team, we're already behind. Yet somehow, we manage to win the first race. How did that happen?

Kelly points out that we had an unfair advantage in that instructor Gareth raced for our team, and he agrees, so from now on I will have to do two circuits instead. I'd better buck up my ideas, then.

Shropshire Star's Mark Andrews looking a little nervous.

For the second challenge, we have to weave between a line of cones, using the bar at the front to operate steering. Unlike the handlebars to a bike, you tilt it to the left or right to change direction.

Needless to say, Kelly is off again like a rat down a drainpipe and I'm frankly stamping on the front of the pedals to get a bit more power. By now, any attempt at navigating the course with any sort of finesse is long abandoned, and all that counts is speed. It is no surprise that Kelly's team manages to pull the scores level.

Mark Andrews rides around on a Segway

The next competitive challenge is in two stages. The first half sees us riding the Segways in a crouching position and the second one standing up – and performing dance moves.

"The winners will be the ones who perform the best dance moves," says Gareth. Now you're talking.

Needless to say, Kelly is faster than me in the squatting position too. Does her Segway have a jet engine? But when it comes to the second stage of the circuit, all inhibitions are cast aside as I give it my all with the dance moves – for the team of course.

Even Kelly's team are impressed by my Saturday Night Fever routines, at least if laughter is a measure of appreciation.

"Those are the best dance moves I have ever seen," says Meg Hughes, who helps out with the Segway rallies. I think I may have clinched victory for the team.

It is the first time the rally has been held at the Weston Park and Meg, who is 26, says it has proved a big success over its first four days. "We have been having a 100 people turn up every day," she says. The plan is that there will be four-day sessions held around every two months.

Anyway, playtime over, we're now going to really put the Segways through their paces in an off-road course through the woods at Weston Park.

By now, we're all Segway savvy and racing round the track like Barry Sheene. It's only when I briefly look up from my wheels that I realise that the short cut I took between the trees was ill-advised. Hurtling towards a low-hanging branch, there is little alternative but to duck, feeling a strange sense of exhilaration when I come through unscathed. I'm enjoying this.

Indeed we all are. These Segways are addictive and everybody finishes with a big grin on their face. Even Hilary, who was a bit unsure at first, is enquiring about other courses. And how many of us came off, Superman style? Well, it turns out, only one, and it wasn't me. A gentleman wouldn't tell, but I'm no gentleman. And I'm sorry Kelly, but you did beat me at the start...

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