Bike builder Ted Wojcik has a problem.
The gifted mechanic, who honed his skills in the Navy as an aviation machinist, has come up with a machine that’s catching investors’ attention.
The not-yet-named device is a recumbent-style bicycle with a lawnmower attachment on the back. It’s a pollution-free way for homeowners to get some exercise and cut their lawn at the same time.
Since introducing it to the world at last month’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Virginia, investors have approached the Vietnam War veteran with plans of getting rich through mass producing his product.
But this proud American will only work with people who promise to make the bikes here in the United States.
“I only want to do this if it leads to American jobs,” he said from his southern New Hampshire home. “I believe that Americans can’t compete on prices anymore, but we can certainly compete on quality. “And I’d like to see this machine sold as a high-quality object that will last a while.”
Wojcik, 63, is well-known in the high-end cycling world.
For 30 years, he has been building custom bikes, for a select international clientele, and he’s proud of his position.
“There are 4.3 million bicycles sold every year, and I only want to sell 100,” he said.
About a year ago, a customer from Portsmouth, N.H., approached him about a human-powered lawnmower.
Wojcik got to work, with his engineer son Cody. Together they created what many say is the world’s greenest, quietest, least-polluting sit-down lawnmower.
“I wouldn’t use it to take care of a golf course, but it is very capable. It has been mowing lawns since August,” he said.
The bike works on its own, too.
The prototype cost about $3,500 to make, and when it first went into use this past August, Wojcik said passers-by got out of their cars to take a closer look.
Wojcik and his son are now working on a second, less-costly version of the machine.
Wojcik is a New York native who came to New England when he joined the Navy. He later worked in motorcycle and automobile shops on the North Shore.
These days, when he’s not talking to reporters and fans about his latest device, he’s trying to think up a catchy name for it.
A lawyer has told him that pursuing a patent for his device may be a costly, but futile endeavor. Recumbent bicycles and lawnmowers have been in the public domain for years so securing those patents is unlikely. He could pursue a patent for the method he uses to connect the two, but he thinks his time and money will be better spent on getting a great name copyrighted.
“It’s like the Frisbee and the flying plastic disk,” he said. “Kids have been tossing around plastic disks for years, but only recently did it become a Frisbee.”
