Inhabitat

July 16, 2008

MOWERCYCLE! Human powered lawn-mower

Behold the mowercycle! Is this an awesome DIY design or what? This ingenious bicycle-lawnmower fashioned by an unknown suburban lawn owner out of an old bicycle and a broken lawnmower, is a testament to the creativity of the human spirit. Spotted in dot dream’s flickr stream, we have no idea who the original photographer was, nor do we know anything about the owner/designer of the MOWERCYCLE. All we know is that it is awesome and should be an inspiration to sustainable design fans and DIY tinkerers everywhere.

If any of you readers have any knowledge about this fabulous DIY design - please get in touch and let us know!

+ MOWERCYCLE

Thanks to tipster Brad L!

7 Responses to “MOWERCYCLE! Human powered lawn-mower”

Androo Says:

July 16th, 2008 at 11:29 am

Hahaha, I’m not sure that would actually be less effort than a push mower given how hard it is to ride a bike on grass, but the concept and the DIY execution are awesome. Love it.

Kent Says:

July 16th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Did the Alfalfa from Little Rascals ride one of these back in the 1930’s?

iceburg Says:

July 16th, 2008 at 2:39 pm

I rode one just like this at maker fair in Austin. It\’s a cool idea, but highly unstable. Most bike can pivot with their two in line wheels, but this pretty much just goes in a straight line with is narrow three points of contact, unless you have the balance and the strength to muscle it around. I know i fell a few times. If someone were to diy this it would be interesting to add some sort of pivot to the mower part to allow for this to steer more like a bicycle, or set it up with a recumbent and put a mower front and to make it drive like a riding mower. Gotta love human power.

migurski Says:

July 16th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

If you’ve ever used one of those pushmowers, which I have, you’ll know that this hybrid isn’t going to work. The bike tire won’t offer sufficient traction on grass, and it won’t support the back & forth movement that such mowers seem to need in order to properly cut grass. You don’t just push them forward, you kind of repeatedly shove and pull back, especially if the grass is a bit over grown or the blades are a bit gummed with lawn.

dimtick Says:

July 16th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

They made one of these (possibly the very one pictured) on a Discovery Channel show. Can’t remember the show name offhand but it’s one of the Mythbuster spin-offs.
they found that this didn’t work becuase it was way too difficult to pedal. they came up with a new design that kept with the spirit of the idea. instead of a push mower, they used an battery powered electric mower which would be recharged using a solar panel. unfortunately they weren’t able to get the solar panel to work but the pedal mower seemed to work pretty well. I think with a little more tinkering they could have gotten the solar charger to work. just couldn’t make it happen within the limits of the show.

Korny Rat Says:

July 16th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

Coo, but hardly a new idea:
http://www.cyclelicio.us/2005/08/cycle-mower.html

M2JL Says:

July 17th, 2008 at 11:49 am

Neat idea, but I agree with migurski. We have a pushmower and I doubt this one would work. Although I wouldn’t mind trying the cycle-mower from Korny Rat’s link. :)

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