Chapter Five – The Honda.
In December 2008, after a little bit of cheeky encouragement from a college, I went ahead and replaced my well used Victa Razor with a new Honda HRU197 Buffalo Bull. I paid $719 after trade-in.
These were an alloy deck mower with a 19inch cut. The engine was the GSV-190 with 187cc, belt driven OHC and a cast-iron bore. Honda called these “Uni-Block”, meaning the cylinder head and block were all one piece, with the engine split diagonally.
I remember at the time Briggs and Stratton had a brochure pointing out how this OHC/Uni-Block design prevented easy maintenance or repair of the valve train. Honda countered with claims of being the lightest engine in its class and offered quieter operation. In operation, this was the smoothest and quietest lawn mower I would ever have. It was great on fuel as well.
However, my overall experience with this mower was not very positive.
First the buying process. The salesman was borderline arrogant and was very pushy. As I have mentioned previously, I had done my research and knew what I wanted. I was sure as hell not paying for stuff I didn’t want, like the mulching kit. I also took issue with having to pay more to have a snorkel air filter, something that probably should have been standard considering the Honda brand being
THE contractors choice. But I pushed on, trading my old Razor in at the same time.
Things didn’t get off to a good start. Very first job it did, the thing would only run on the choke. I took it back and they blamed dirty fuel and charged me for the repair. When I got it back and ran it for a few weeks, I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t catching very well. Again, back to the shop, where I was told the standard procedure was to fit their mowers with two high-lift and two low-lift blades, this was apparently so their customers wouldn’t be working “in a cloud of dust”. Fine, but the thing isn’t delivering a clean cut and all MY customers have lush, irrigated lawns. Two extra high-lift blades were fitted at my cost.
Another thing that annoyed me was how the catcher would fall off due to a poorly designed flap and catcher setup. I also found the angle of the handlebars was too low, meaning it was uncomfortable to use all day long for my tall stature. Combining the handlebars, the heaviness of the machine and the skinny wheels, it was just something ended up hating to use.
I really, really wanted to like this mower. At the time, it felt like I had graduated and joined the big boys when I bought myself a Honda. Even my clients commented about it. Things didn’t start off well, and they just didn’t improve as time went on, in fact they got worse. I would finally give up and go in a different direction 18 months later.
Next – Another disappointment.