Something that is not widely known is that the earliest form of the Rover HD25 built around 1965 was called the Rover Rider. The name only seems to have lasted a few years before they changed the name to Heavy Duty. Despite the obvious safety risks, the jockey seat that could be pulled behind was never entirely phased out. From the outset it was treated as an optional extra. I do have one and it was banana shaped when I got it. Obviously someone had run it into a ditch and bent it out of shape. It took a neighbour with a sledgehammer followed by a trip to a local engineering works to straighten it out again. There is no way I would ride behind this thing unless 1) the ground is level and 2) I know the area to be mowed is free of any obstacles hiding in the grass. I am surprised that these seats were still being sold as an optional extra right up to the time Rover phased out the HD25. They were designed to be used with the largest "dogs" attached which drove directly off the wheels, so that was for high speed mowing.
The second thing not widely know is the paint colour. The earliest Rover Rider was a dark yellow, a bit like Caterpillar Yellow at a guess. I only realised my machine must have been repainted with a lighter shade of yellow at some point in time. It was not until I took off some parts that I could see the original paint colour still on the reverse side. I was thinking of repainting it John Deere Yellow, but am now wondering if that might be too light. I want to match the original as best as possible, so maybe Cat Yellow? Seems to be around about RGB (240, 162, 51) or RGB (255, 177, 53).
By the 1970s, the colour changed to the Royal blue hammertone paint. A height adjustment lever was installed which was far more convenient than the old method of having to manually adjust the height by removing the front wheel axles and re-attaching them to a series of incremental bolt holes. Additional belt covers were also installed. In the early 70s a basic small guard was placed over the main cutting pulley. By about 1975 this was extended to box in all of the exposed belts and pulleys on the drive and cutting deck.
I have seen photos of red painted HD25 slasher mowers, but am not sure if this suggests they made it into the 80s "red" era, or if those machines were just the older yellow or blue models that had been repainted. Red machines with the 1970s style front wheels are in existence, suggesting the changeover to red paint might have resulted from late 70s manufactured machines still being in stock in the early 80s. So these were painted red to coincide with the new decade. Alternatively, machines might have still been manufactured in the early 80s, up until about 1983 at a guess. If anybody knows for sure, please let me know, as it would be good to narrow down the exact time periods for the different paint colours used by Rover.
