I hate mowing the lawn. Grass makes me sneeze. Half burnt gasoline and oil makes me vomit. When I mow the lawn, the toxic odor makes me sneeze and vomit. And yet, being a frugal home owner, I felt obligated to mow my lawn. Isn't that the American dream? A wife, two kids, house, and the privilege maintaining a well manicured patch of fresh green real estate. So for 5 years after buying our first house, I toiled behind a gas powered lawn mower, maintaining the image of the American Dream.
And then my wife tricked me. A year after our second child was born, I complained how mowing the lawn took precious time away from me and the kids. Vulnerable and feeble minded from sleep deprivation, I agreed to her contracting some local students who would mow our lawn for an incredible bargain of 25 dollars a shot. Wow, the American Dream just got easier. I can pay someone to perform a chore that made me sick and I got to spend more quality time with the kids for just 25 bucks a pop. Win win right? This was the easier path to travel, but my frugality still tugged on my conscience.
The years moved on. We upgraded mortgages which came with an even larger plot of green real estate to tend. 25 dollars a mow became 30 which soon became 40. Over the course of 7 years at an average of 16 mows a season at an average cost of 30 dollars, this translates into over 3 thousand dollars. This was clearly a luxury in the Mah household. Mean while, the "free time" spent with the kids was soon occupied by a new extra curricular activity.
I started taking Brazillian Jiu Jitsu lessons. As with anything I love to do, I became very obsessed with BJJ and was attending classes 3 to 4 times a week. Classes were often in the evening so, I would would miss or rush through dinner to attend class. I frequently stayed late and miss putting the kids to bed.
Keeping this schedule up for over several years, it dawned upon me that my kids were growing up without me. Yes, some of the "free time" gained by having a lawn service, was now completely consumed and surpassed by BJJ. I was prioritizing BJJ over time with my kids. And so I stopped. Giving up BJJ, I went to sport that allowed a more flexible schedule with my family. Mountain biking.
Actually, I didn't just get into mountain biking. I was sucked into a middle age, neighborhood biking cult. I soon found myself tearing up trails in our local park, competing in races, night riding, and culminating into a crazy 100 mile solo mountain bike ride. While I had progressed quite a bit in my year long biking endeavor, I was determined to find additional ways to level up. A Tim Ferris fan, was there a way I could "hack" my bike training?
So how to spend more time on the bike, still be with the kids, and do this without spending more money? In some rare moment I envisioned myself mowing the lawn with my bike. Many birds could fall with this one stone if it worked. And problems associated with mowing the lawn would be eliminated. I would no longer sneeze, since the adrenaline from biking acts as a natural anti histamine. Biking eliminates the need for gas or oil. Given the ultra quiet nature of the bike and mower, it would be possible to mow my lawn at ANY time of the day . . . or night.
And thus began the journey of building a human powered bike mower.
