Weird Bike Wednesday - Sunkyong Bicycle Lawn Mover

Hammacher-Schlemmer sold this in 1985

Hammacher-Schlemmer is known for selling some oddball and expensive items. Things like a flying tricycle for $45,000. I ran across an article about their Sunkyong bicycle lawn mower which they sold in 1985 on the Classic Cycle website. Others have developed bicycle lawn mower prototypes, using  old style reel mowers to cut the grass. This design uses a spinning blade underneath the crank. This contraption never caught on, since it had some design flaws:

• It wouldn't cut if the grass is wet.
• The gearing was just too low. If you spun the crank at 100 revolutions per minute in high gear, the forward speed is just a bit more than one mile per hour, so it would take a while to finish cutting your lawn.
• At a weight of 63 pounds, it took off on a downhill, and the single caliper brake didn't have adequate stopping power.

On the plus side, the mower had an MSRP of $399, which made it more affordable than most of the special items that Hammacher-Schlemmer sells.