Re: correct preasure in cylinders -Johnson 9,9
lowkee. Are you suggesting 120 PSI as a minimuim or are you saying your gauge doesn't go lower than that? Rick.
The red line on the tester begins there (and goes lower). The tester itself goes down to 0 and the green line begins at 70psi (5 kPax100) and goes higher (there is a progressive crossover between the two colors at 70-120psi).
I have never bothered with a compression tester before on a small engine, so I'm merely guessing based on this tester's readings. 2 strokes (if yours is one) will normally run pretty much forever. I've worked on easily 500 of them and never replaced a set of rings and have only seen a few which were locked up ever reach the scrap heap (Mystery Oil is godly).
You can try a decarb, but if you have low throttle response (why else question compression?), I'd look more at your carb(s) than compression.
If you want to try a set of rings, I doubt they will run you much. Buy a hone, crosshatch the cylinder and pop in the new rings. Keep in mind, all new engine break-in rules apply with new rings!
Most 2 cycles I've seen have a nice removable cylinder, which makes it simple to replace rings (again, if ever I find one needing them).
Hope that helps, and let us know what you find.