Hi, I just bought a 2000 400ex and am lovin' it so far. My only thing is I don't care all that much for electric start. Has anyone heard of maybe swapping out the 400ex motor for a motor off a xr400 dirtbike??? Or know of any other ways to possibly change it over to kickstart...

 

i wondered about this as well, and i havent heard of anyone putting a kickstart on it. i have noticed the old 350x 3- wheeler motors look a lot like the 400ex motors. i dont know how close they actually are. those were kick start. im not sure if the xr 400 bikes were kick or not. if you could put a kick starter on a 400ex, i would want one.

 

I have a kicker 450R and love it, but I can't say I have ever disliked the electric start on my 400EX, or had a single problem with it. Changing out the motor just for that, seems really silly!

 

And....did you even consider that that dirt bike will kick backwards??? Right into your rear fender and tire....

 

Yes I did consider this. That is why I was just kinda askin and lookin around for ideas. I seen a 400ex on eBay yesterday and they had swapped the motor for crf450 so...

 

Well just go buy a TRX450R, and you will get the CRF engine and the kick starter...that's what I did!!!

 

I have thought about that too, but I just think it would be cool to have a kickstart 400ex especially with a 450 motor. Just trading up and buying a 450r would be nice but I don't have money for that. A nice used crf450 motor would be around $1,000 and I can always sell my 400 motor for a few hundred as well. And I would love to be smokin the 450s around here on a 400ex.

 

The 450R has a much better frame and suspension than the EX. Stuffing that much power in an EX frame, unless you want to spend thousands on aftermarkert suspension, doesn't make much sense.......

 

You might make a good point there well I don't plan on taking any action of any kind til this summer anyways but just the thought of it sounds cool. But you may have a point in the end it may end up being cheaper to sell mine and get a 450r.

 

Hey i was just thinking couldn't you just put the 450 kick start on it?!!?