John Foss wrote:
> What you have to worry about is when the grass is too thick and the motor
> bogs down. Then you have to drag the thing back to a non-grassy area to
> start it up again!
The blade can be set at 3 heights, so I shouldn’t ever have to worry about
getting bogged down. Except that the grass at the bottom of my sloping lawn
grows faster than the moss at the top, and I can’t usually be bothered to
move the blade up.
> Oh, sorry, that only applies to a gas (petrol) motor. I guess an electric
> one keeps going, or trying to, no matter what.
Or until the circuit breaker trips (I used to use an extension lead with an
oversensitive circuit breaker, mowing the lawn has been a lot quicker since
I bought a new one).
A hovermower should always be tilted on its side when starting or stopping.
> … you’ve spilt your beer.
Unlike milk, that would be something to cry about.
–
Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply) ( http://www.juggler.net/danny )
B4/5v c(+) rv d m(+) w++ q+ k e+ t+ (s) g+ f - http://www.lpbk.net/jc/
“I don’t think proofreading is adequate. All posts should be waxed and
buffed. Then they should wear little tuxedos.” - Greg Harper on usenet
Danny Colyer wrote:
>
> I’d be amazed if Flymo hadn’t broken into international markets. ISTR
> they’ve been around since at least the early 80’s, maybe the late 70’s
I remember my dad having a petrol hover mower before 1974.
> Unfortunately the cushion of air doesn’t work quite so well on the slope of
> my back garden, but it’s still easier to use than Richard’s lawn mower (that
> must be why my lawn gets mowed occasionally, Richard
Yes, but a hover mower is crap on long grass (I challenge you to come
round and cut my lawn in its current state with your flymo
> (FWIW, the first couple of times I mowed my lawn after we bought the house
> and before I got my own mower, I borrowed Richard’s mower. Even better,
> Richard was generous enough to perform the first mow himself while Catherine
> and I were unpacking).
And I was stupid enough to do it in a brand new pair of shoes. They
were never the same afterwards.
> > I’ve just had a look at http://www.flymo.com
>
> Holy crap, it really is a hovering mower! I was just kidding in my post
> about having it spin around and spill your beer…
>
> I never heard of a hovering lawn mower.
>
> JF
>
OK guys, now your getting me scared. I used to have this problem with Photo clubs. Everytime I joined a new club, I’d sit down to chat expecting an in depth discussion of the relative merits of Gandolfi folding field cameras versus the Sinar studio rail cameras or new and interesting uses of the Scheimflug rule. But no, every single time the very first thing out of anyones mouth seemed to be “Do you want to see the slides of the TRACTION ENGINE show I went to last month”. I mean TRACTION ENGINE SHOWS - that the farming equivalent to train spotting.
So for all you mower fans out there try following the link from the Flymo site to the Electrolux site. You’ll find a mower there which is even less “Bover then a Hover”.
Personally, I live in an appartment block , nice lawns around the block but someone else has to mow it. Also I noticed Harpers attention was directed toward the safety of the beer - a much more sensible attitude.
> My last garden was a true forest. One stake, one piece of
> rope, one sheep and one week later and it was all gone
Surely you then needed a “sheep poop mower”?
So without wheels, does it matter how you propel a hover mower? Can you
swing it side to side like with a floor buffer (or sander)? If you’re on the
side of a slope, it must be hard to push it in a straight line. You must
have to go either straight uphill or down. Is this right?
Reminds me of supermarket shopping carts in Holland, which steer with all
four wheels (American carts steer with front wheels only). It has its
advantages, but surely it’s hard to turn the corner with a fully-loaded
cart!
> My last garden was a true forest. One stake, one piece of
> rope, one sheep and one week later and it was all gone
Surely you then needed a “sheep poop mower”?
So without wheels, does it matter how you propel a hover mower? Can you
swing it side to side like with a floor buffer (or sander)? If you’re on the
side of a slope, it must be hard to push it in a straight line. You must
have to go either straight uphill or down. Is this right?
Reminds me of supermarket shopping carts in Holland, which steer with all
four wheels (American carts steer with front wheels only). It has its
advantages, but surely it’s hard to turn the corner with a fully-loaded
cart!
> My last garden was a true forest. One stake, one piece of
> rope, one sheep and one week later and it was all gone
Surely you then needed a “sheep poop mower”?
So without wheels, does it matter how you propel a hover mower? Can you
swing it side to side like with a floor buffer (or sander)? If you’re on the
side of a slope, it must be hard to push it in a straight line. You must
have to go either straight uphill or down. Is this right?
Reminds me of supermarket shopping carts in Holland, which steer with all
four wheels (American carts steer with front wheels only). It has its
advantages, but surely it’s hard to turn the corner with a fully-loaded
cart!
So who is going to record a short MPEG for JF? I can’t the kids have just got to sleep! Yes you can move the Flymo in any direction whilst taking care not to cut the mains lead…
They are great if the lawn is not an easy shape for straight line mowing. The other benefit of a hover mower is the fact you can go over paving stones and patios without damaging the blade.
keg wrote:
> So who is going to record a short MPEG for JF? I can’t the kids have
> just got to sleep! Yes you can move the Flymo in any direction whilst
> taking care not to cut the mains lead…
I had planned to have Catherine take a short .avi of me mowing the lawn
while riding the unicycle and drinking beer. Then I realised that I would
spill my beer if I tried doing it for real. Some sacrifices are too great
to make for art.
It might just have worked on my front lawn, which is fairly level, but by
the time I got that far I’d drunk more beer and the whole thing started to
look a little unlikely.
I can see that next time I mow the lawn I’ll have to video it.
–
Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply) ( http://www.juggler.net/danny )
B4/5v c(+) rv d m(+) w++ q+ k e+ t+ (s) g+ f - http://www.lpbk.net/jc/
“I don’t think proofreading is adequate. All posts should be waxed and
buffed. Then they should wear little tuxedos.” - Greg Harper on usenet
Thanks. It took me a couple of years to find a wheel disk (bike shops
seemed to stop selling them around the time I got my first unicycle), and
people still ask me where I got it from (I found it in a little bike shop
somewhere near Manchester, but apparently disabled access shops sell wheel
disks for wheelchairs, which can be cut down).
I bought it specifically for playing hockey - it means I can’t get the ball
stuck in my spokes.
–
Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply) ( http://www.juggler.net/danny )
B4/5v c(+) rv d m(+) w++ q+ k e+ t+ (s) g+ f - http://www.lpbk.net/jc/
“I don’t think proofreading is adequate. All posts should be waxed and
buffed. Then they should wear little tuxedos.” - Greg Harper on usenet
>My last garden was a true forest. One stake, one piece of rope, one sheep
>and one week later and it was all gone
OK, most people will be able to find some sort of stake. Most anyone
has a piece of rope. Weeks come from a sustainable source, for free.
But do you have any tips about how to lay your hands on a sheep?
Klaas Bil
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“Fernspah, tank, JITEM”
Neil lives in the Shetland Isles. You don’t have any problems finding sheep in the Shetlands, the skill is finding somewhere without any sheep.
True Story - My uncles death certificate read “Died of a heart attack brought on by chasing sheep”, for an Inverness bloke that’s a very embarrassing case of death.
He was an RSPCA inspector trying to pull the sheep out of a swollen river at the bottom of a steep gully. It still makes me chuckle to consider what he might have said if I could have told him that was the way he was going to be remembered. That doctor had a seriously sick sense of humour.
In article <3cd99ebb.1710376@newszilla.xs4all.nl>,
Klaas Bil <klaasbil_remove_the_spamkiller_@xs4all.nl> wrote:
)On Wed, 8 May 2002 19:08:19 +0100, “Neil Dunlop”
)<neild@roachmill.demon.co.uk> wrote:
)
)>My last garden was a true forest. One stake, one piece of rope, one sheep
)>and one week later and it was all gone
)
)OK, most people will be able to find some sort of stake. Most anyone
)has a piece of rope. Weeks come from a sustainable source, for free.
)But do you have any tips about how to lay your hands on a sheep?
Let’s stick to unicycling and leave your private life out of this, OK pal?
-Tom
> OK, most people will be able to find some sort of stake. Most anyone
> has a piece of rope. Weeks come from a sustainable source, for free.
> But do you have any tips about how to lay your hands on a sheep?
>
> Klaas Bil
Make sure you wear an elastic waistband, because they can hear a zipper
from a mile away.
