Reuniting w/ my 52yr old Cat 400X
- Thread starter White Gas
- Start date
Actually I'm pretty sure that is a Cat 400X frame @manchester1 has. It has the same setup as other Cat 400X's and you can see some scrapes of Red Candy paint on the frame.
Oh I see. When you said "Not" I thought you meant her bike was not a 400X. Yes the mainline 400X's didn't use a scrub brake. They used a Kelsey Hayes brake caliper which the frame in Manchester1's photos has the mounting tab by the sprocket where you could mount the caliper so it's more than likely a 400X.
Yeah that scrub brake was definitely added by someone because something like that would not come from the factory. I'm pretty sure Cats only used scrub brakes on smaller bikes like the 250X's & 300X's. My guess is that the brake caliper broke and they couldn't find one to replace it so that scrub brake was an improvization. This is definitely a bigger Cat frame (400X) that someone welded a scrub brake on.
And yes the deck where the motor mounts too does look like it has been shortened. It was probably to help add the scrub brake in.
And yes the deck where the motor mounts too does look like it has been shortened. It was probably to help add the scrub brake in.
@White Gas have you had any more leads to tracking down your original mini bike ?
I'm not sure what's up with the extra tubing on the forks. I've never seen that modification before. You can see a mud flap was added on the front fender too so someone really modified this bike. It was probably used for trail riding or mudding and was probably ridden rough which might be why the caliper and other original parts are missing.
Totally agree with u on the mudding. We had some trails close to the house we referred to as “the torture track”. The track was thru low growth scrub and don’t remember their being a flat, level spot anywhere. The property was a horse graveyard. No seriously, the accessible quarter of possibly a 15acre lot was a thriving horse stable and pony ride farm for kids and, you guessed it, the rest was a burial ground for the aged and/or infirmed horses. My mother had worked there as a youth cleaning the stables and brushing out the horses. They never sent the departed ones to the “glue factory” back in the day. They buried them on the back of the property w/ a backhoe. Hence, the humpy, bumpy, sideways rolling terrain everywhere. Appreciated my mini bike way too much to ever abuse it on that kinda’ terrain. But certainly jumped our bicycles there quite often. Looks like that wasn’t the case for Manchester1’s find. The bike still looks incredibly solid and w/ some TLC I’m sure it’ll get restored to it’s former glory. Again, FANTASTIC FIND !!!
It could definitely be a 1969 Cat 400X. Yes the first year they were a little smaller. However I don't think that is a Briggs mounted on Manchester's bike I'm pretty sure it's a Tecumseh because it has the Tecumseh tank & Taylor Spark arrestor muffler on it. Could be a replacement engine like an HS50 like you said.
Really like the 400X you have as well that is a nice survivor!
Really like the 400X you have as well that is a nice survivor!