Jimi Heselden OBE, the owner of the UK-based parent company of Segway, Inc., died on Sunday in a tragic accident. He was apparently riding a Segway at his home in West Yorkshire, England, when he fell off a 80 foot cliff to his death. The cause of the accident is not known at this time.

Contrary to some reports, Mr. Heselden did not invent the Segway. (That was Dean Kamen.) Mr. Heselden, 62, was Chairman of Hesco Bastion Ltd, the manufacturer of defensive barriers that are used by U.S. and British troops throughout Iraq and Afghanistan. His company purchased Segway, Inc. in December 2009. Mr. Heselden was an avid Segway user and generous philanthropist, having donated more than $36 million to charitable causes like Help for Heroes. In 2006, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to the Defence Industry and to Charity.”

The Segway world has lost one of its greatest advocates but Mr. Heselden’s family is expected to carry on his passion and charitable good works. Our condolences go out to his family and many friends.

SegTours, LLC is now taking applications for full- and part-time customer service positions.

We encourage college students and responsible adults to apply. Note that these positions are NOT tour guides and no historical knowledge of the area is necessary.

More information is available here.

As part of the Gettysburg Bike Week events, we’ll be offering FREE Segway rides at the Gettysburg Civil War Complex this Friday and Saturday, 3pm - 8pm.

This is a great chance to experience the fun of riding a Segway Personal Transporter(tm) under the supervision of SegTours of Gettysburg, the exclusive Segway tour operator on the battlefield. The more adventurous can even try their hand at a challenging Segway obstacle course!

Please come by and take a ride!

The Gettysburg Civil War Complex is at 297 Steinwehr Avenue in Gettysburg.

Pursuant to the training that our staff received at Segway headquarters, SegTours of Gettysburg has been designated a Segway Experience Center and a Level 2 Service Center. With this training, we’re in a better position to maintain our fleet as well as to provide service to Segways owners in the area.

We’ve also been added to the Segway Authorized Tour program and recommended by Segway, Inc. on their website.

Well, this is a little embarrassing. As of yesterday, Segway Tours of Gettyburg is now the MOST popular thing to do in Gettysburg, according to the travel site, TripAdvisor.com!

Wow. We never really expected to have a higher rating than the battlefield itself! Of course, a vote for SegTours IS a vote for the battlefield too since that’s what we’re touring. So we’ll just look at this as an affirmation that our Segway tours are the best way to tour the battlefield.

Thanks to all of our customers who have taken the time to share their experience with TripAdvisor. It is good to hear that you think we’re providing a fun and educational experience to Gettysburg visitors.

The senior staff of SegTours of Gettysburg is just back from Bedford, New Hampshire, where we visited Segway headquarters.

In addition to meeting many of the big-wigs at Segway, Inc., we were treated to a fascinating tour of the Segway factory assembly line. We also heard directly from the source about exciting new Segway projects like the EN-V, a two-person sit-down vehicle with Segway technology. “EN-V” stands for Electric Networked-Vehicle but we think this is a case where they found a good marketing acronym (say it out loud) and then decided what it stood for .

The EN-V was developed in partnership with General Motors and is the second-generation prototype of the PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) project that was announced last year. The Acronym Department has apparently been working overtime.

The real purpose of our trip, however, was to give our staff a chance to get down and dirty with the Segway. We learned how to better maintain our growing fleet and even make repairs that would otherwise require a Segway to be shipped back to its mother ship in Bedford.

There’s more news developing along those lines and we expect to be able to make an announcement soon. So stay tuned…!

We’ve noticed that, especially as the sun starts to go down, tour participants seem to get very formal in their reaction to the tour guide. But despite appearances in these photographs, there is no truth to the rumor that you are required to salute!

Ah, yes, sunset is a beautiful time to tour the Gettysburg battlefield!

Remember that if we took photos on your tour, you can find them on our Flickr photo page. Then just click on the date of your tour. From there you can right-click on an image to save it to your computer.

Another milestone! SegTours of Gettysburg is now the #2 most popular thing to do in Gettysburg, according to TripAdvisor, the popular travel site!

#1 is the battlefield. Yeah, we can live with being second to the battlefield!

Thanks to all who have posted or will post a review to TripAdvisor! We appreciate your support.

For the last two days, the Gettysburg Civil War Museum and the Gettysburg Diorama have conducted an open house for local businesses and residents.

SegTours joined in the fun by offering a free introduction to our Segway obstacle course for those attending the open house.

In two afternoons, approximately 75 local folks got a chance to see first-hand how easy it is to ride a Segway - even around traffic cones, up and down ramps, and across a rumble strip.

The first person in line for the obstacle course was Bob Kirby, the new Superintendent of the Gettysburg National Military Park who, it turns out, is an experienced Segway rider!

The weather was beautiful and it was great to see so many people turn out for this fun event. Thanks to all those who came by to experience the obstacle course!

It doesn’t take much to get us excited in Gettysburg, does it?

After a long and miserable winter, we’re thrilled to see the first sign of Spring — the porta-potties have returned to Pitzer Woods! We don’t know whether they were hibernating or migrating (and we don’t want to know) but their winter hiatus is over, much to the relief of Park visitors who have anxiously awaited the flock’s return to its summer camp ground. (A 2.5 hour tour can be a long time to be without a rest room).

Their arrival was almost a month ahead of the schedule that we were told to expect by the pottie-experts in the Park. The hastened schedule was no doubt affected by the arrival of construction (or de-construction) equipment this week at Devil’s Den. The 75-year old brick comfort station there has been targeted for removal as part of the Park’s efforts to return the landscape as much as possible to its 1863 condition. So the temporary facilities, hidden in the woods about at the half-way point in our tour, will be a welcome…um…relief.

You might be thinking that we are overly-excited about rest room news in the Park but it was enough to attract a news crew all the way from WGAL-TV in York! Last night’s newscast included a story about the Devil’s Den project, including an interview of our own Sherry Rudisill as she paused a Segway tour on Little Round Top. The video is on WGAL’s web site here.