Patent ID: 8887840

Claim:
A lawnmower comprising: a chassis; a seat including left and right armrests, the seat being supported on the chassis for permitting an operator to sit or stand on the chassis; a pair of drive wheels for supporting the chassis above a ground surface; an engine and a pair of transmissions for driving the drive wheels; and a pair of manually-moveable handle assemblies for controlling the transmissions, each handle assembly comprising: a mounting bracket; a handle bracket pivotally coupled to the mounting bracket about a horizontally-extending axis so that the handle bracket may pivot relative to the mounting bracket in a generally vertically-extending plane; a control handle formed about a single axis and attached to and extending upwardly from the handle bracket near an end of one of the armrests so that the operator may control the lawnmower by moving the control handle primarily with his or her hands while resting his or her forearm on the armrest; a linking rod attached directly between the handle bracket and a pick-up point on one of the transmissions so that movement of the handle causes the linking rod to directly move the pick-up point for controlling operation of the transmission; and a dampening cylinder pivotally connected between the mounting bracket and the handle bracket for smoothing movement of the control handle.