Bent crank?

Not the new normal. Is it in Warranty? I would lean towards the crank as well or some other internal friction. If itÂs in Warranty I would take it up with Honda and not ask too many questions of the owner. If not covered, since you have already ruled out the obvious stuff it is either they live with it or keep exploring, which could get expensive.

No obvious external defects. I've never had an engine like this that pulled so hard with the plug out. The Hondas have always been easy.

Owner says it's been like this since new and the husband doesn't want to take it back to (Lowe's ??)

Hubby needs to wise up and take it back to Lowes. I have never seen a Honda pull hard. If itÂs the 217 it has BBC and should pull effortlessly.

Nope, it has a pulley for the drive on the shaft and that's it. No blade brake. I'll let you know what happens with it.

I suggest popping the belt off and trying it. Could be a transmission issue.

The belt was very loose. It's tensioned with a lever at the top of the handlebars.

Does it have the auto decompression feature and if so is that valve opening properly to allow for it to spin easy? My honda has it but if it were not functioning properly I suppose it could make for a lot of resistance when trying to start it.

All I know is that the valves are both closed BTDC and ATDC.