| Greeves motorcycles
began as a manufacturer of 3-wheeled cars for the disabled. Bert
Greeves designed a vehicle for his cousin who had complained of the
inadequacy of the typical battery powered units commonly available.
Bert did the industry one better by producing a gas powered car that
offered greater range and mobility. Invacar Limited was formed in
1946, and the small firm did surprisingly well. |
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The first Greeves trials bike, 1954. |
Greeves was a motorcycle
enthusiast and believed there was a market opportunity for a line of
good, lightweight motorcycles. In the early nineteen fifties, he
began to design the machines and introduced his first two units to
the motorcycling public in 1954. They were both dirt bikes, one
being a trials machine, the other a scrambler model. These early
units were powered by Villiers 200cc two strokes engines. From the
start, these motorcycles were easily identified by two unique
Greeves features: the leading link front fork and the cast aluminum
"down beam". |
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| Greeves believed
competition improved the breed and could provide valuable exposure
of the company's name to potential buyers. In 1957 he went racing
with a highly regarded motocrosser at the time, Brian Stonebridge.
Stonebridge enjoyed considerable success in Britain, and the small
company's sales began to grow. In 1958, the pair traveled to the
European continent to compete in the newly established FIM 250cc
motocross class. In traveling Europe, Bert was shaken to discover
that the British were "regarded as rather a second-rate race in
sporting spheres". This revelation caused Greeves to redouble the
company's racing efforts. The commitment paid off quickly, with
Stonebridge garnering two second place finishes in the championship
standings in the ensuing two years.
Following the tragic death of
Stonebridge in an auto accident, the company hired Dave Bickers as
their rider. With a new motorcycle punched out to 246cc, Bickers won
the European championship in both 1960 and 1961. |
Dave Bickers racing at Glastonbury, England. |
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1960 Hawkstone Scrambler |
It was about this time
that Greeves motorcycles began to show up in western states desert
races. The little silver and blue Hawkstones began to change peoples
ideas about what kind of hardware was needed to win. Before the
Greeves, lightweight bikes were a joke. They were unreliable and had
difficulty even finishing. Greeves changed all that. They not only
finished, but were often beating the large bore desert sleds of the
day. For a ten year stretch, from 1959 to 1969, Greeves motorcycles
became the ones to beat. |
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The 1962 Mark II roadster with Villiers 250cc twin. |
Greeves built road bikes
as well as off road motorcycles. By 1962, there was 11 models, four
of which were roadsters. |
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| In 1962, Greeves introduced a new
Villiers powerplant featuring a Greeves designed cylinder head and
barrel. The new cylinder featured revised porting for better power
and the familiar Greeves "square barrel" look. A year later, the
company produced the Silverstone road racer, an economical, 250cc
bike for the privateer. |
The 1963 Silverstone road racer. |
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360 cc Challenger, 1967 |
The reliability of the Villiers
motor began to suffer as more and more horsepower was coaxed out of
the square barrel design. It became clear to Greeves that an
entirely new engine was needed to remain competitive in both speed
and reliability. That new design made its debut in the 1964 250cc
Greeves Challenger. The motor featured the Greeves head and barrel,
a lower end built by the Alpha Company and an Albion gearbox. By
1967, a 360cc version was available. These were highly successful
motorcycles, enjoying popularity in both desert racing and motocross
events. |
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| Greeves also experienced
considerable success in trials competition. In 1964, Don Smith won
the European Trials Championship aboard a Scottish Trials. In 1967
he won a second time, riding an Anglian.
The Scottish Trials models were
produced from 1960 through 1965, with introduction of the Anglian in
1966. |
Greeves Scottish Trials, '62-'64. |
Don Smith, 1967, on an Anglian
Photo: Brian Holder |
1967 THS Anglian Trials. |
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| The last of the Challenger models
was produced in 1968, replaced by the 250 and 380cc Griffon
motocrossers in 1969. By this time the familiar leading link fork
was no longer offered, having been replaced by conventional
telescopic forks. The leading link design could not be stretched to
allow the now 7" travel of the telescopics. At various times the
bikes were fitted with Ceriani, Metal Profile or Telesco's. Gone too
was the familiar aluminum front down beam, more a victim of
marketing strategy than engineering necessity. A new frame of
Reynolds 531 chrome moly with a conventional down tube was now
standard. |
Griffon marketing brochure, 1969. |
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1973 Greeves 380cc QUB
Greeves marketing brochure, 1973. |
Shortly after introduction of the
Griffon line, a collaborative engineering effort began between the
Greeves company and Dr. Gordon Blair of Queen's University, Belfast.
This collaboration resulted in the last significant bike to be sold
by Greeves, the Griffon QUB (Queen's University
Belfast).
Driven by the market and competitive demand for greater horsepower,
Greeves turned to Dr. Blair to help squeeze more ponies out of the
Griffon 380. A highly regarded expert in two stroke theory, Dr.
Blair and his staff re-engineered the ports and exhaust system,
bumping horsepower from 38 to 44. The new bike was called the QUB
and although production began in 1971, units did not arrive in the
U.S. until 1972. A second QUB model, called the MKII was introduced
in 1976, one year before the company closed its doors. |
| As an aside, you should
know that Dr. Blair is still very active in two stroke R&D. His most
recent publication, Design and Simulation of Two Stroke Engines,
came out in 1996. It is considered a bible in the field of two
stroke theory and is available from the Society of Automotive
Engineers (http://www.sae.org)
. The QUB was a superb machine,
but it alone was unable to stem the tide of competition from Japan.
Joel Robert captured three straight FIM 250cc world championships
(1970-'72) and Roger Decoster nailed down three 500cc world
championships (1971-'73) aboard Suzukis. This ended the domination
of world competition by the smaller European marks and sales of
these brands declined rapidly. By the end of the 1970's, Greeves,
DOT, Cotton, AJS, BSA and Triumph had all been driven out of
business. |
Copyright 2006 all rights reserved.
Frank Conley's Greeves |
Thank you to Frank Conley for
allowing us to use this information. |
