Thanks for the update roebuck. You can see why I wanted to keep the magnet attached to its mounting block and put the whole thing onto the flywheel. I'll look forward to your next report when you get another magnet.
I understand a trickle of Hondas does turn up at recycling centers, but they seem to be pretty much end-of-the-road examples. A contractor gets what he thinks is the last out of them, then they go to a salvager. The salvager either makes one-out-of-two and sends the offcuts to the recycling center, or fixes them up just well enough for them to run for a while as a home lawnmower, and then go to recycling. Having said that, I've seen examples of ex-contractor Hondas on the way to a recycler that were fairly fixable. Sometimes ex-privately owned ones are not too bad at all, but if they are complete and running, they go to ebay and sell for high prices. I think the biggest problem the salvagers have, is the high price of Honda parts, and the rarity of second hand parts. That is why they tend to make one-out-of-two, which wastes a lot of good components.
