Segway's sluggish sales have brought a Pittsburgh manufacturing company to a halt.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Mark Wyeth, chief executive officer of Axicon Technologies, said sales volume of the company's transmissions was "much lower than expected." In this 2001 photo, Wyeth is in a special room where transmission gears are tested. Click photo for larger image.

Because the much-buzzed-about "human transporter" has yet to change the way Americans move around, Axicon Technologies Inc. was forced to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation last month.

"Segway was our primary customer," said Mark Wyeth, president and chief executive officer at Axicon, which designed and produced pint-size transmissions for the vehicle. "We had much lower-than-expected sales volumes."

Wyeth said Bedford, N.H.-based Segway placed an order for 1 million transmissions from the South Side-based manufacturer in 2000, but failed to fulfill it. "It's our belief that they did not pay us within accordance of contractual obligations."

A spokeswoman at Segway LLC said the privately held company does not discuss financial information publicly, but acknowledged that it's "been unable to reach a mutual agreement" with Axicon.

Axicon, which was founded in 1995 and at one point employed 33 before dropping to 10 when it closed its doors in early August, specialized in designing, developing and producing gears that make little noise.

After first designing its own transmission, Segway commissioned a prototype from Axicon in 2000. Shortly thereafter, Axicon was producing gear shifts for the Segway that traveled at speeds of up to 12.5 mph.

Segway, a battery-powered, two-wheeled scooter developed by entrepreneur Dean Kamen, has been well-received by such organizations as the Atlanta police department and Chicago's O'Hare Airport police force. But priced from $4,000 to $4,500, it has failed to meet sales expectations.

The company said it was now producing its own transmissions.

"We put a lot of eggs in that basket," Wyeth said from his home yesterday. "For whatever reason, it turned out to not be the best basket to choose."