this may be common knowledge, old news, etc but it's new to me.. is Segway a part of Specialized or vice versa? I was at what I thought was the only spesh dealer in the area today gathering info on a Roll low entry I'm lusting after. I didn't think to take pics so when I came home i hopped online to cap an image to send to a friend and the local Segway dealer popped up as a Specialized dealer, which surprised me greatly as their website really only talks about Segway

Hello there,

I had never heard of Specialized and Segway being related in any way, so I just checked online and, according to Wikipedia, Segway is now owned by Ninebot Inc, a Beijing-based company:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segway_Inc.

Since 2001, Specialized has been 51% owned by the original founder Mike Sinyard, and 49% owned by Merida Bikes from Taiwan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specia...cle_Components

Bottom line: I don't believe these 2 companies are related in any way They may share reseller stores however, which is most likely what your local store is.


Geoff

Hmmm... probably a small bike shop decided to expand inventory and sell segways. Either that, or the two dealers have similar names and your search picked up the wrong one.

There are a few odd mergers. Apparently Bianchi and Piaggio merged... which means our only local Campagnolo dealer is the local Piaggio dealer

Thanks Jofu, I suspected it was something like that but I see you guys talking about stuff all the time that is surprising to me, I repeated the search yesterday and again today, the only time the Segway store pops up is when I search specifically for a dealer with the Roll step thru in stock. I'm gonna call them later today or maybe just drive over, it's less than 20 miles and I lived there 20 years ago I wouldn't mind seeing the ol town again

Piaggio bought the Bianchi name in 1980, but no longer owns the brand. For the last 20 years, Bianchi has been owned by Cycleurope AB. As far as I know, there's no relationship between Piaggio (a public company) and Cycleurope (owned entirely by Salvatore Grimaldi).

... And Bianchi USA has had their own sources, on the Pac Rim, for decades..