At least you have one... My red one (TroyBilt) broke a valve spring a few months back. It wouldve cost more to fix it that it was worth. So, we've been push mowing our 3/4 acre.
Ironically I started out with a Troy, but the deck couldn't be leveled, and for the premium price and model it was, I had to give Lowe's a piece of my mind. As I was shopping around, I kept watching all my neighbors having constant problems, and breakdowns on theirs, and decided I didn't want to be dealing with that. Tractors/riders are one of the most breakdown prone yard machines, so although I didn't want to spend the $$$$ went to a local JD dealer, who turned out to be very low pressure, honest, and a father/son team, which is rare on the upper east coast (all we have a box stores). Got the first one home, and it turned out to be too light duty for my yard, and honoring the JD guarantee, brought it back, and upped it and never looked back.
I feel your pain in having one, then NOT having one. I know I used to push mine for 10 years, @ 3 hours a mow, and finally gave up (and got a tractor), and can't complain for the amount of hours I have on it, AND having to cut, cut, cut everyone's yard while they didn't fix THEIR riders, lol, only having one belt go, not bad.
