I don’t intend this site to become an Old Trail News Site, but they seem to be having many of the announcements of late – a lot of exciting things* are happening there right now, and all of Crozet benefits. Take for instance, Trailside Coffee’s survey –
1. How many cups of coffee do you drink daily or weekly?
2. What is your preferred beverage?
3. Where do you currently get your coffee? (home, office, coffeehouse…%)
4. Would you be interested in joining community events held at coffee house (ie bookclub, talkgroups, garden clubs?)
5. What type of food would you like us to serve?
6. What Hours and days would you like us to be open?
….
Many more questions giving hints about how they intend the shop to grow … Send responses to Marcia.
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Old Trail Cigar and Tasting Event –
Seriously – Awesome beer from Blue Mountain Brewery and cigars?
Each guest will enjoy:
– Sampler pack of cigars from Miami Cigar Co. and CVille Smoke Shop, valued at $59 (retail);
– Fresh-Rolled cigar crafted on-site;
– Unlimited tastings of Blue Mountain Brewery beers and ales;
– Dinner menu paired with and created for the beers and ales offered for tasting;
– Coupon for a round of golf, compliments of Old Trail Golf (valued at $59); and
– Assorted gifts from event sponsors.
*Neither of these is the “big announcement.”
Please elaborate on how all of Crozet benefits? What is amazing about Old Trail is that they are trying to create a “community” when the community of Crozet already exists. This is a prime example of developers attempting to create an environment when the best environments develop on their own. Was Crozet not a community or a nice place to live prior to Old Trail or any of the other sub-divisions? The only real change for most people actually from Crozet has been added traffic. Development is not a bad thing but development done poorly (example: Crozet) is a bad thing.
Evan –
Thank you so much for your comment. I am working on a response, but would welcome any other responses in the meantime.
–Jim
Old Trail is excluding itself from the rest of Crozet by not including the folks who have been around since the beginning. An example is the July 4th fireworks, there was NO advertising for this at all, NO invitation published anywhere.
They are building a high class community and they don’t want regular blue collar near them. Example, bringing in Segways ??? Who can afford one of these, oh yeah.. someone living at Old Trail. The ONLY roads built for these are IN Old Trail.
See my point……
WHOA there John, why do you want to pick on our little, local, independent family business? I think that you have more than a few things a bit confused. It’s my family that owns the Segway store, not the Beights. So they didn’t ‘bring in Segways’, WE DID. They didn’t approach US, WE approached THEM!
Why did we sign up at Old Trail? Because they had upcoming space available where we can literally roll in and out of our store. Which is kind of important when you are selling Segways, and kinda unavailable right now anywhere else in Crozet, in the small space size that we needed! The Beights were willing to work with us and meet our space requirements, and they have been great folks to work with. Plus, we are only a few minutes and one traffic light away from I-64.
You ask who can afford a Segway? FYI, there are VESPAS that cost a LOT more than Segways!!! And you have to insure, change the oil, pay taxes on and feed GAS to those, and you don’t have to do any of that with a Segway! I don’t think that there’s a car on the lot over at CarMax that is priced anywhere near as low as a brand new Segway (maybe even a pair of ’em)!!! And I just came back from a Segway convention where there were 150 ‘enthusiasts’ there. I think that it was a pretty good cross section of Segway users. Lots of retired folks, independent business owners, a few “Gen X’ers”, a couple of school teachers and lots of ‘techies’. And a few cops, a guy that puts in asphalt driveways, a guy that sells tractors and a janitor. You might have a hard time telling a few of those people that they aren’t hard working blue collar folks. Ex-hippies, preppies, computer geeks and cops; if THAT wasn’t a group! And all of them own and use Segways for clean, dependable transportation on a regular basis, and not just for fun (even though they ARE a LOT of fun!).
By the way, I’ve sold a few Segways already. And NONE have gone to anybody living in, or connected to, Old Trail (at least not yet… but I’m sure trying!!!).
Oh yeah, about your “ONLY roads built for these are IN Old Trail. See my point……” comment, you needed to do a little homework about that, because you would have found out that you couldn’t be more wrong. You see, in Virginia it is ILLEGAL to have a Segway on a road if there is a sidewalk next to it; in fact you can get a ticket if you don’t ride on the sidewalk! Every road that is in Crozet that has a sidewalk next to it is OFF LIMITS to Segways; you have to be on the concrete! And Crozet proper already has MILES of Segway legal sidewalks! And once Jarman’s Gap road gets straightened/widened/sidewalks added, people can get from Old Trail to downtown and vice versa without ever having to get out on the road! And every Segway that you’ll (hopefully) see in the coming years in Crozet (and elsewhere) is ONE LESS CAR that you would be stuck behind.
I was at the July 4th celebration at Old Trail (working, showing Segways). WHAT fireworks are you talking about??? They didn’t have any fireworks there that I saw! From what I heard they deliberately timed their homeowners association party so that they wouldn’t conflict with the CVFD’s celebration so that folks could go over to Crozet Park and support it! Yes, they do have parties just for folks that live in Old Trail, just like Western Ridge and a lot of other developments do! Hey, it’s their dues that pay for it all, why should they have to invite the whole town??? If you don’t live there (and I don’t), why should I expect their Association to invite me to a private party there? I don’t have a problem with that.
Don Rich
Seg-Ville, Inc.
You must not be selling alot of them because i don’t see ANY on the roads. the VA roads may be legal for them but i would ride one down crozet ave, park road or jarmans gap because there’s not enough space on the side to ride them.
MOST of the people in Crozet don’t work in crozet so we NEED our cars and not expensive toys. where can the groceries go ?
i wasn’t asking for an invite to a party, maybe just a note to say fireworks at 10pm. i was thinking of the kids in the area how get woken up by the banging of the fireworks and asking mom/dad why they can’t see them.
you must not have been in crozet july 4th nite because there ere fireworks.
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What is the need to have multiple fireworks displays in Crozet? I’m pretty sure NYC only has one display, they have millions of people and Beijing (albeit fake on TV) had only one fireworks display for the Olympics. It seems that if one wanted to include the community or to be only one community there would only be one fireworks display. As an additional question, besides the City of Charlottesville, what other groups/neighborhoods/communities have their own fireworks displays? Am I wrong in saying Farmington? Is Old Trail trying to be Crozet’s Farmington? I can see how many people think so.
One quick clarification – as far as I know, there was only one fireworks display in Crozet around the Fourth of July – those in Crozet Park.
I do not live in Old Trail but I can positively, 100% say, there absolutely were NO fireworks in Old Trail on July 4th. We live close by and were home the entire day/night. There were other fireworks in the area but only some nice size “backyard”
displays.
No you don’t see a lot of Segways running around Crozet. Yet. But you will. Remember, we just started this business. And our customers won’t all be in or from Old Trail, Crozet or even Albemarle County, and I never claimed that they would be. We already have customers in Lynchburg and as far away as Abingdon. Which is why it is important for us to have a location that wasn’t too far off the Interstate.
Where do the groceries go? On the universal cargo platforms, in the Givi removable hard cases, or even in the handlebar bag… Yes, there ARE some folks that use Segways as toys, just like there are folks that use ATV’s and jet skis (and don’t tell me that Old Trail has a monopoly on folks that own either of those, or that you don’t have a single friend or someone you know that owns one of them – and chances are that they paid as much or more for it than a Segway if they bought it new). But unlike jet skis and four wheelers, you can use Segways for clean, environmentally friendly, legal local transportation; they aren’t just “toys”. And tens of thousands of people do use then this way each and every day.
Will Segways totally replace cars? No! And I never claimed that they would! I still need MY car, too! But according to the EPA, on average Americans get in our cars 900,000,000 times a day. Sometimes it’s to go to Sam’s Club 20 miles away and load up with 100 lbs. of food & supplies. Other times it’s to go a mile or two to Crozet Hardware to pick up a pound of nails or a hose washer. In fact (again according to the EPA) we get in our cars 450,000,000 times a day to take a trip that is 5 miles or less with only one person in the car. It’s trips like these that have the worst gas mileage, and are the easiest to replace by using a Segway! Can you imagine what would happen if we replaced just 20% of these trips by car with trips by Segway? I can! We would reduce our gasoline consumption by 6,200,000 gallons EVERY DAY. That’s over 2 1/4 BILLION gallons of gas that we can save EVERY YEAR! Want to reduce dependance on foriegn oil?! I do! And the amount of CO2 that would be reduced in the process would be would be in the TRILLIONS of pounds.
Yeah, I WAS in Crozet all 4th of July weekend. I don’t know about you, but every 4th of July my dogs go crazy because of all the fireworks that go off, and most of them aren’t from Crozet Park. I think that most folks expect that there will be one group or another that will always celebrate our great Nation this way, and I don’t need a memo to tell me that.
Don Rich
Can you imagine how much electricity we would save if we didn’t have to charge a Segway ? Always having to charge the battery, that the charge is only good for a short period.
Can you image what our landfills would be like if we didn’t have to throw away an unrecyclable batteries ?
My family and I ride actual bikes around Crozet. It’s healthier for everyone and much better for the environment. No electricity, No power cords. Can go alot further than a Segway. Can go alot more places than a Segway.
Good luck with your business. Hope you have a back up paln.
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John, I didn’t mean for this to get personal. i just don’t like it when folks spread inaccurate information about either my business or our products.
By the way, my family owns bicycles, too. But there are times when you want to go somewhere without having to get all sweaty, yet still not take a car. And the Segway is perfect for that.
The cost of the electrictity for a full charge is about 8 cents, and uses just over one KWH. And you can go up to 24 miles on that 8 cents worth of juice. Being a bicycle user, you know that 24 miles isn’t a short distance! But if all the trips that are taken daily by Segway riders were done by cars instead, it would cost them a LOT more in gas. And it costs us ALL a lot more when we are having to import more oil for that. Oil fired power plants are a lot more efficient than cars, and we have Lake Anna on our grid as well.
The TRUTH is that every single part of a Segway battery gets recycled. It is ILLEGAL to dump one in a landfill, and there are HUGE fines for companies and individuals who do. You can learn more about recycling rechargable batteries at http://www.rbrc.org a great organization dedicated to keeping them OUT of landfills!
Sorry that you seem to feel that our business is destined to fail, John, I don’t share your pessimism. Instead I am optimistic that most of the folks in our great community will be supportive of independent business efforts like ours, and that they will keep an open mind to new and clean transportation technology. It will be a sad day whenever we wake up to find that there aren’t any independents left, and we are all at the mercy of corporate giants.
Jim, thanks for creating this blog, and giving us a chance to set the record straight, and allowing us to clear up any misinformation.
Don Rich
Seg-Ville, Inc.
You may have the last word….
Good Luck.
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Technically, John – I think you got the last word. 🙂
Don, John, Kim, Evan, et. al – thank you sincerely for commenting and contributing to the conversation, and thank you to those who are reading and not commenting. This is exactly the type of conversation that needs to happen in this community.
So, thanks.
Woa.
Don Rich, thank you for all the timely information. I am not in the market for any new vehicles, but it is always helpful to know about what is out there. I am glad that someone was on here pushing your buttons– it gives the rest of us a complimentary introduction to both your family store and Segways in general.
I personally think Segways are a great alternative, but only one of many alternatives to fossil fueled vehicles. They are expensive and not for everyone. I’m not sure if you do or plan to carry others but I think it would be great to see you carry electric bikes and other alternatives. Also, have you considered donating one to the Albemarle Police force for patrols or community outreach in Downtown Crozet. It would be a tax write off, get your name out to the community, and a great benefit to the local community. There is a lot of skepticism towards our police dept and it might help their image if they did some outreach in the area and quit going after high schoolers and their parents all the time.
Not to mention, there are much more pressing problems.
Thanks, Evan & Jessica, for the great comments!
Recently Chief Miller and I sat down to discuss what benefit ACPD could get from having Segways in their vehicle fleet. Unfortunately, due to the large area and rural nature of their coverage, Segways aren’t an alternative for them right now. We did discuss the possibility of them renting our tour fleet each year for both days of the Foxfield races as well as other events, and this is something that you might hopefully see in the future. We were also hoping to get Segways into Charlottesville’s fleet, but so far we aren’t having any luck there. However, we aren’t going to give up on them! And UVA is currently studying the issue of whether or not to allow them on Grounds. I’d sure love to donate units to all of those departments, but sadly the only place that I’ve found where philanthropy comes before profit is in the dictionary!
Part of what is so great about being an independent store is our ability to represent other product lines if we want. And when our new website is up (in a few weeks) you’ll see that we are going to be stocking not only Segway branded products, but also those from SegVator, MTO Battery, SegNation, FunkyMove and others. These product lines though are all currently Segway related. And we don’t have any plans to change our focus, because dollar for dollar, I haven’t found anything that surpasses Segway’s value. But I’ve also owned an E-bike for many years (Lee Iacocca’s attempt to break into the clean transportation market), and I look at every new product that comes to this part of the market. And I do think that in the not too distant future we are going to see even more innovation in this area. Don’t forget, Segway, Inc. is barely 7 years old, and already on their 2nd generation product line. Ford’s second generation product was what, the Model A? And the car market and its offerings have changed tremendously over the years, making them both more affordable and more widely accepted. I think that we have a good chance of seeing much the same thing in the personal transportation market. Time will tell.
Don Rich
Seg-Ville, Inc.
At one time, I may have also held the attitude that people should walk or bike instead of riding Segways. Then I tried one. Number one – they are way too fun – I dare you to ride one without a smile on your face. Number two – after riding one, I can certainly see many possibilities for using one. They are much faster than walking, so if you need to get from point A to point B quickly or without having to change clothes, they are great. If I lived in town or CVille I would seriously consider one. Number three- why put down someone for opening a new, local business that thinks outside the box and contributes to our economy? I wish Don the best of luck.
John,
Clearly you have never been on a Segway or know much about them. They use very little electricity. Your computer uses more than a Segway. The batteries are being rebuilt to provide a second life, not ending up in a landfill as you seem to think. Do a bit of research first.
I wish Don and his family great success with their Segway dealership.
I’m not quite sure why you seem to be so angry. If you can’t change the world, maybe you should change yourself.
I wish Don good luck also. I don’t see a need for them in Crozet, where the streets don’t have enough room to barely drive a car yet alone have to worry about a Segway. Oh, I forgot, the roads in Old Trail are big enough, so the only real place to ride them is in OT. I guess that’s the best place for them since the design for the TownCenter only has parking for about 10 cars, so you’ll need a Segway to go to the TownCenter. Which means in today economic state, the only people who can afford a Segway are the folks who live in OT. The rest of us hicks will just have to live taking our cars to get our chores done, like groceries ( can’t put them in a Segway), take kids to practices (can’t do this on a Segway), take family to eat (can’t put everyone in a Segway), go to Farmer’s Market (can’t put all veggies in Segway), go to Cville/W’boro(can’t make it on a Segway).
I’m sure they’re a blast, but sorry I don’t see an overall need or want outside of OT.
I hope Don does well and sells alot but I see his primary sells going to folks outside of Crozet, so why have a store where you won’t see your products ?
Contribute to Crozet community or OT’s community ?
Don… please accept my apologies as i really do hope you have a lot of success, just understand from someone who grew up in the area and has seen alot of changes and would like to see more changes for the better of all who live in Crozet. OT is segregating itself from the rest of Crozet and that’s not what small communities like ours needs now.
I’m not angry, I would just like to see something come to Crozet that will BENEFIT ALL of Crozet and not just one subdivision.
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