Greeves AJS Scrambles Bike

[nzpeterb]

Colin, good to see you adding the text from your book for those who don't have the reference, and a bonus photo as well.

A Villiers twin is not as big a stretch as a Moto-Bi engine but good to hear it made it to the ISDT and survives.

If we have examples from Scrambles and the ISDT guess that leaves road racing and trials. Did a Triumph Greeves ever compete in top level trials?

Peter.

[John Wakefield]

Norton engined Greeves

There was apparently a 500T Norton engined Greeves ridden in the SSDT
I was speaking to a guy at the Barrington New Years Day classic car & bike meet who is planning build a similar one. And another local enthusiast has built a Yamaha XT 500 engined 'YamGreeves'

[Rob]

Has anyone ever attempted to put a Royal Enfield Bullet engine in a Greeves frame. Such a great engine for trials but it is the weight that keeps me on the Anglian. ?? What I meant was, the Enfield is bl**dy heavy so I ride the Anglian (except in the Talmag)!

[John Wakefield]

Another pic of Tim Gibbes 500 AJS Greeves, or is it a Matchless
The timing cover in this pic looks like a Matchless whereas the pic in the cover of Motor Cycle (in nzpeterb's first post) is an AJS. I wonder if it was the same frame?

[dave higgins]

Another pic of Tim Gibbes 500 AJS Greeves, or is it a Matchless
The timing cover in this pic looks like a Matchless whereas the pic in the cover of Motor Cycle (in nzpeterb's first post) is an AJS. I wonder if it was the same frame?

The article on greeves facebook page, where you copied the photo from, says it is a matchless engine, or rather graeme smith who posted it does.......

[Brian Catt]

Looking at my copy of the excellent "Classic British Trials Bikes" by Don Morley, it appears that the difference between Matchless and AJS engines was the original position of the magneto, with the AJS's at the front and the Matchy's behind the barrel.
All that changed for the 1952 model season and both became forward mounted. So we can see that calling it one or the other is pointless, it's an AMC engine.....

[Brian Thompson]

Greeves NSU.

For those that may not have seen them before, there's some pics of the second bike built by Brian Stonebridge here in one of my albums; http://greeves-riders.org.uk/forums/album.php?albumid=1

Also, there's some YouTube footage of it being fired up by his son Ian at the 2009 GRA AGM here, as filmed and uploaded to YouTube by our very own Gary 'Gaz' Gwillam (thanks Gaz!) ; (See Post #8 of this thread.....and don't forget to TURN UP THE VOLUME!!! ) http://greeves-riders.org.uk/forums/...reeves+youtube

Brian.

[dave higgins]

Nice link Brian.... personally i think greeves missed the trick, by not developing a four stroke motor.
Think what could have been, if there had been a reliable donar engine available, to expand thier range into other areas?......

[floydbassman]

Talking of Hybrids, I saw the Wemoto website the other day. The Greeves cafe racer with the Triumph Trident engine is finished. Reports say it handled very well with the leading link fork assembly.

[nzpeterb]

I know this post is somewhat old, but today I have managed to get a photo of the ex Tim Gibbes Greeves AJS special as it looked in 2011.
By then Tim had sold the bike and it was converted for use in classic road racing events in New Zealand.
The photo was taken in 2011 at Hampton Downs race track competing in the Classic TT.
I did make contact with the current owner who hopes to return the bike to its original spec but has another restoration to complete first.
The owner seems reluctant to let me visit at present. The trip is 1,000 km each way.
Regards,
Peter

[IanCordes]

Is it a 350 or 500, Peter? It is a pushrod motor, isn't it, and Roadholder forks? Looks like a lady riding it in the photo....

Ian

[nzpeterb]

Hi Ian,
The bike Tim Gibbes built was 500 cc and Tim usually just called it an AMC engine, though it was sourced from AJS as Tim rode in the ISDT for them.
As the more recent photo shows, the bike has been converted to road race trim with different forks, wheels, guards, seat, and handlebars.
The programme for the 2011 event this photo came from described the bike as a 1951 Greeves 350.
I am not expert enough to know if the bike pictured is a 350 or a 500, but certainly know it can't be 1951.
Tim Gibbes got the original 500 engine in 1962 and first rode the bike in March 1963.
The current owner of the bike told me last year that he is hoping to put the bike back into scrambles spec.
Regards,
Peter.

[IanCordes]

Thanks for the info, Peter.