Quest Completed - Hello

[Geoff]

After being bitten by the Greeves bug for absolutely no reason (I do not have a family connection to them, or have really ever seen one ), and aparently losing at least one auction for a Ranger to Tony on this site (Ranger 5) my quest is over...

Just took delivery of my very first off road bike and have absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into! I was told t is a 62 TES but in the minute I took late last night I have yet to find the frame number. I am looking to sort the aesthetic and cycle bits to be able to at least use it for the Moto Giro East in the US in September, with a loftier goal of doing vintage motocross or trials next year.

[Brian Catt]

Nice buy, but forget doing Vintage MX on it! They are built for Trials and you will be 30 mph too slow for MX.

[Colin Sparrow]

The frame number on any alloy-beam Greeves is stamped into the alloy on the left side of the steering head.

Provided it's a genuine Greeves number we can tell you what it is.

[Geoff]

Frame is 24TES561, cylinder is stamped M20 EXA. Sending in my membership application to the GRA today .

[Colin Sparrow]

As it was an export bike, it isn't in the UK factory dispatch record and unfortunately the record of exported bikes was lost when the factory closed, so we can't track it down precisely.

It is, as you thought, a 24TES trials bike. That's quite a high number, so it will be later than 1962.

In the UK record the three bikes 24TES 565 - 24TES 567 left the factory in July 1964, so it's a safe assumption that it is a 1964 machine.

[Geoff]

Thanks Colin! I have been trying to find any more information regarding the engine itself, not sure where I should be able to find an id stamp somewhere to be able to figure out just what it is.

Great book by the way!

Geoff

[Colin Sparrow]

Villiers engine numbers are on a rectangular steel plate attached to the top of inner part of the primary chain case by four rivets. They can readily be removed, so they do go missing. You may be able to see the holes where the rivets once were.

Another snag is that chain cases are easily swapped between the various engines so they find their way on to inappropriate engines.

A 1964 24TES would have had a 246cc single cylinder Villiers 32A engine with the engine number prefixed 453D. It would have been fitted with a Greeves-manufactured alloy square-barrelled cylinder.

Glad you like the book. There's an illustration of a spot-on 24TES mk2 on page 111.

And before you ask, the square exhaust is original and correct - see page 101...