Mowing the grass at a decent height is important as well. I had a customer with a fairly new mower who was complaining about lack of power. Turns out he had the height of cut set at 1", and was basically mowing his grass every 3 weeks when it was tall enough to be considered a hay field.
I get a lot of those Toro Recyclers (not super recyclers) with the 190cc Briggs flathead in through my shop and they bog down. Most of the time it is due to the engines not being set at the proper RPM (I set them around 3000 RPM). A lot of them come through running barely above idle. Push it into thick grass and it immediately stalls, not sure why so many of them left the factory that way. Seems to be pretty common on any mower with a Briggs flathead engine.
Its a blade tip speed safety issue. Feds say a certain length blade can only spin a certain rpm. Problem is, its usually lower than the mower engines power range.
Yeah that's definitely what it is, but out of all the 22" and 21" mowers I service, the Briggs flatheads (especially from big box stores) seem to be running the slowest, as in under the recommended speed. Not sure why, it's just what I've noticed. My thought initially was the governor springs weakened/stretched over time, but I've found it to be the case on a few brand new mowers.
back in the 70's and 80', these ran faster. They've slowed all the engines down over the years.
I forget exactly what the spec is supposed to be, maybe 2150-2250 RPM for a 21" mower? I can't remember but have it in a maintenance book somewhere. My point was some of the ones I come across from customers are way under even the government spec, running at 1750 or idle speed. They push it into some moderate grass and it will stall out right away. I think it has more to do with poor quality control, although I'll usually set them around 3000 RPM for a better cut quality and more power.
For safety, Federal Law requires that the mower manufacturers set their engine RPMs so that the blade tip speed does not exceed 19000 fpm. For a 21" mower, the maximum engine RPMs would be 3450. For a 22" mower, the maximum engine RPMs would be 3295. I used to set them at 3400 and 3250 when they came in for a tune-up. The only mowers that I set to the 3600 RPM maximum engine speed were the 18" to 20" mowers. Many of my customers would comment about how much better their mower ran and cut after I did this. I also adjusted all of the new mowers I sold to these RPMs.I forget exactly what the spec is supposed to be, maybe 2150-2250 RPM for a 21" mower? I can't remember but have it in a maintenance book somewhere. My point was some of the ones I come across from customers are way under even the government spec, running at 1750 or idle speed. They push it into some moderate grass and it will stall out right away. I think it has more to do with poor quality control, although I'll usually set them around 3000 RPM for a better cut quality and more power.
You are still walking behind a self propelled mower, and it's more exercise than the rider most people use.
*If possible - buy the 190 as it is superior to the 160 (unless you are cutting thin Fescue) . Bermuda grass down South would choke out and stall the 160 size Honda engine .
If you want some more exercise feel free to come over and push my mower around under the blazing hot sun. Only takes a couple three hours. You could get two work outs in a week in the spring when it's raining biblical proportions.