Honda hr214 handle braces

One of the things that has always bothered me about my hr214 is the handle wobbled a little bit, especially when I would push down on it to take pivot the mower around turns. After a little investigation, I found out that the pin on the  handle stay (the bracket that attaches the handle to the deck) had broken off, causing the loose fit.

At the same time that I figured that out, I had also seen somebody on the MTF forms say that you could add commercial handle braces to the hr214 and that it would make a big improvement. Long story short, I went ahead and bought the commercial braces, along with the handle stay.

So did it get rid of the wobble? Absolutely! The handle feels like its carved out of rock, and is completely stable while i'm walking behind the mower. In retrospect, I'm not sure if the handle braces were necessary, or the stay itself would have done as good a job, but I think with the braces in place the handle stay won't brake again.

Here is what the new stay looks like. Not chrome, but functionally identical.