This past weekend, Jo and I ventured out to Incheon to watch the start of the Tour de Korea. While there, a number of vendors were present and I saw something I had to try:

This is the hands-free BB-Rider. It is the Korean version of the Segway. Since they were allowing people to try it out, I couldn’t pass that chance up… and this is what it looked like:

First of all, I have a brand new-found respect for anyone that rides ones of these things. Looking at police officers and a few others that whip around on these devices lead me to the opinion that doing so would be easy. As you could see in the video, I had a rough time just getting on the contraption. Once I did, my balance wasn’t 100%, so I couldn’t even remain still. It was always creeping in one direction or another. However, once I got the hang of things, I was able to move around a little, but I still wanted to use my arms to help steer.

Like the Segway, it uses balance and gyroscopic technology to measure direction and speed. The more you lean forward, the faster you go. Turn your waist and the device turns with you. For those needing to move quickly about an office, this would be of great help to reduce the need to constantly get up and down. Personally, I’d live to see wheelchair basketball done with a version of these. – it would give a whole new meaning to the term “fast break.”

What do you think? Have you ever tried one of these things?