New Member from New Zealand

[nzpeterb]

I thought my first post should be to introduce myself.
I have just joined the forum and just confirmed the purchase of a Greeves trials bike that I will describe in a separate post.

I have owned two Greeves motorcycles in the past.
The first was a very original 1964 Challenger used for classic scrambles.
The second a complete bitsa built from parts collected over a number of years. It used a Challenger frame that a previous owner had cut the I beam off and replaced it with a tubular frame front. First this had a 250 Challenger engine and later a twin port 360 engine. The rest of the cycle parts were a real mix including disc brake front end.
When I gave up racing probably about 20 years ago both were sold.
If anyone was really interested I could probably dig out some photos.

These days I am riding twin shock trials but want to make the move to pre 65, so my bike of choice was to return to the Greeves marque.
There aren't that many in New Zealand but when this 1964 24TES came up at auction it fitted the bill perfectly.
More details in the next post.

Regards,

Peter.

[Kim275]

Hi Peter,
Welcome to the forum and great to hear of some Greeves down under - and good luck with your pre65 trails.......I would be interested in seeing pictures of your Challenger ....................and I wish I could use a disk break in my pre-74 scrambling
If you need help and tips on Greeves members are always happy to assist.......although sounds like you have a lot of first hand Greeves experience.....
Take a look at the Greeves association website - it is definately worthwhile joining the association - and I think you can do that as an overseas member. With that you can get full access to forium post pics etc.....

Cheers Kim

[nzpeterb]

Kim,

Thanks for the reply and apologies for the delay responding, but I have now dug out photos of the Greeves I used to own.
The 1964 Challenger was very original except the back guard which was a plastic one. I used the bike in classic scrambles up until 1986. I can add photos of the other side of the bike if there is interest.
Experimenting I found some performance gains were achieved by adding a stinger pipe on the original exhaust outlet, (Although not fitted in the photos).
I now realise my first email was not clear. The second Greeves with the disk front end was used for road racing, though based on a modified Challenger frame. I can post pictures of this if anyone is interested.

Regards,

Peter.

[Brian Catt]

Your comments about increasing performance by adding a stinger to the end of the Challenger's pipe reminds me of the Dave Palmer system that not only added performance, but made the bike noticeably quieter. Has anyone got a Palmer system now? I believe it was based on a perforated cone.

[johnrunnacles]

Great pictures, Peter, and welcome to the GRA!

Bike looks very similar to one I used to own, except that I always understood mine to be an MX2, 1965 model because of the kidney box. Mine was blue and white, too, which confused the "experts" as to the year of manufacture, but it did come from the factory in those colours.

As a matter of interest, did yours have the duplex primary chain, also indicative of the 1965 model? It would be interesting to see a shot of the other side, to see what chaincase was fitted.

With best regards,

John R

[Phil Hyde]

Racer pics from NZ

Peter

Let us see the photos of your Greeves based racer. The more the merrier.

Kind regards

Phil

[Kim275]

Kim,

Thanks for the reply and apologies for the delay responding, but I have now dug out photos of the Greeves I used to own.
The 1964 Challenger was very original except the back guard which was a plastic one. I used the bike in classic scrambles up until 1986. I can add photos of the other side of the bike if there is interest.
Experimenting I found some performance gains were achieved by adding a stinger pipe on the original exhaust outlet, (Although not fitted in the photos).
I now realise my first email was not clear. The second Greeves with the disk front end was used for road racing, though based on a modified Challenger frame. I can post pictures of this if anyone is interested.

Regards,

Peter.

Great action shot thanks for posting

[nzpeterb]

Challenger Photo

John,

Thank you for your reply. I have included a picture of the other side of the Greeves, but sorry I can't remember whether it used a simplex or duplex primary chain.
I have looked in the Villiers Osprey book and see what you mean about the different gearbox so perhaps it really was a 1965 model?

Regards, Peter.

[nzpeterb]

Phil,

Attached are photos of the racer I built,
I bought a 250 Challenger frame, swingarm, tank, engine, exhaust, and gearbox in the 70's for $70 NZ dollars - At the time between 20 and 25 English Pounds.
The frame had the I beam cut off by a previous owner and a tubular downtube added.
The bike was built very cheaply and used Honda CB360 front forks with disk brake. The rear shocks were Suzuki GT380. The shocks and forks were bought from wreckers. The fibreglass seat was replica Ducati.
Initially it was raced unfaired then a Kawasaki A7 full fairing was added.

The bike had a 4 speed Albion box with the cam like modern gearboxes.
I bought an Albion 5 speed box in pieces. It was the earlier design with the swinging fork. I made a new gear to replace a broken one (The person I bought it from had destroyed it trying the gearbox out on a Manx Norton)
The swinging fork gearchange was so slow our lap times increased instead of getting faster so back to the 4 speed.
The stinger I mentioned already is shown in one photo. This did improve the performance.
Next we managed to purchase a twin port 360 motor that had been used in speedway. This was too much for the Albion clutch so we changed to a heavyweight AJS or Matchless box.
I designed and built the exhaust myself which ran under the motor along the centre line of the bike. The design of two stroke chambers was a fascinating subject.
I should note I never raced the Greeves - Road racing was not my thing - I enjoyed building it and it was ridden for a number of seasons by a friend or sometimes my brother.

Regards, Peter.
The first photo is with the 250 engine


The second is with the 360 engine.


The last shows the fairing.

[johnrunnacles]

Challenger scrambler

Many thanks, Peter, for the nearside view of your old Challenger.

There is no doubt in my mind, now, that it is a 1965 production model. It is identical to the one I part-restored about three years ago, having saved it from the scrapheap.

There has been a bit of mild controversy about whether mine was in the proper colours (blue metal with white plastics) for a 1965 MX2, but the colour of your's reinforces my contention that I had replicated it just as it must have left the factory in 1965.

Thank you for that, and good luck with your continuing allegiance to the Greeves camp!

John R

[Phil Hyde]

racer pics

Peter

Thanks for posting your racer pics. Very good. Typical Kiwi ingenuity. Make something out of nothing and it still looks great.

Phil