Hi all In my opinion nothing beats the swing backs .Especially on mowers where the disc is on the engine shaft itself. Bent crankshafts are common with mowers like Masports with bar blades but they have probably cone to swing backs now, .One thing in favour of a bar blade is that they are very positive in the way they seem to RAM the clippings into a catcher and will really pack a catcher till there is just NO more room.
Having said that I realize that most riders are using bar blades attached to a jackshaft spindle and the shock of hitting a hard object lying in the grass is not transmiietd to the crankshaft of the engine . so bar blades on riders are sort of O/K
My daughter has a very large area to cut and she bought a Flymo Auto drive about 6 years ago and found the diffence in the finished cut to be far far superior. .I noticed the cut looking a bit rough the other day and asked her husband how long since the blades wer changed and he told me .NEVER, The spare blades I left with them are still hanging on a nail in the shed. I Think the rough looking cut may be caused by a slight variation perhaps in the tyre prssures. It doues not take much for the mower deck to tilt and leave the saw tooth look
Be back later and will add to this tipic when I have had a look at just how the blades are after all these years and will check just exactly how long it was that they wre put on but must be 5 to 6 years Cheers Joe
