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Segway crawls to success atop Mount Washington
Adding to the evidence that new technology isn’t always a great leap forward, one of the new Segway human transporters struggled its way to the top of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, but well off the pace of the machine it may eventually seek to replace.
It took six sets of batteries and three drivers, but the Segway eventually made it to the top of New England's tallest peak. The scooter climbed Mount Washington's auto road – site of the annual bicycle race -- in about two and a half hours Wednesday, well off of Tom Danielson’s 49:24.
The standup scooter, invented by Manchester New Hampshire's Dean Kamen and manufactured in Bedford, was the first Segway to make it to the top of the 6288-foot mountain in 7.6 miles.
The average grade is 12 percent, and as much as 18 percent in some places. About a third of the road is unpaved.
Kamen has touted the Segway as a small, clean, simple mode of transportation. Critics have said that those goals are achieved far more efficiently by a bicycle than by the $5000 computerized Segway.
The Segway belongs to Heritage New Hampshire, a tourist attraction in Bartlett. The drivers were employees.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
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