Greeves (motorcycles)

The original company founded by Bert Greeves MBE was the Invacar company. Greeves was mowing the lawns of his home in Worcestershire when he had the idea of fitting the lawnmower engine to his disabled cousin's wheelchair and invented the Invacar. Invacar Ltd was set up and won a major contract to provide motorised three-wheeled invalid carriage vehicles to the UK Government Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. in 1952 from a small factory in Church Road, Thundersley not far from Southend-on-Sea in Essex. Protection was finished off with reinforced engine cradle plates which were also light alloy castings. later replaced by their own designs from 1964 forward. The lightweight high powered package made them successful in the trials market place against Triumph and BSA models. In 2025 Gary Bamford t/a Classic Bikes 1970 of Gloucester obtained the rights to the original Thundersley built Greeves from Richard Deal. Gary supplies spares and service to classic Greeves bikes. ==Competition success==

It was off-road competition that was to dominate Greeves production, and in 1956 Greeves signed motocross rider Brian Stonebridge and started competing in the European Motocross Championship. Stonebridge became the company Competitions Manager and Development Engineer, as he was a skilled two-stroke tuning specialist and was able to significantly improve the performance of the Villiers engines. The next Greeves model was called the 'Hawkstone'; to capitalise on this success and the company began to specialise in motocross motorcycles, ridden by champions including Peter Hammond, Jack Simpson and Norman Sloper. After the death of Stonebridge, Greeves signed Dave Bickers, who won the 1960 and 1961 250 cc championship. The company went on to win the Manx Grand Prix, the Scott Trial, the European Trials Championship and the Scottish Six Days Trial, winning gold medals in the ISDT and the ACU 250 cc Road Race. was also riding a Greeves machine and won a bronze medal. Peter Inchley on the Villiers Starmaker Special in 1966 lapped The Island at 93.17 mph, the only Brish 250 to lap at over 90, completing the 250 race at over 90 mph, finishing 3rd. This was a Cotton frame, a highly developed Starmaker engine and Bultaco forks. As well as a boost for the Greeves factory, this was an important win when the sport was beginning to become dominated by foreign motorcycles. This led to a lot of interest in the Greeves road bikes, including from a number of British Police forces for a version of the bigger twin equipped with a radio. Also in 1964 Greeves launched the 'Challenger', and first time out ridden by Garth Wheldon it won the Terry Cups Trail. In 1967, a version of the successful Challenger was launched, together with a road racer, a 350 cc version of the Silverstone, called the 'Oulton'. A special export model called the 'Ranger' was also developed but by 1968 Villiers had pulled out of engine production and Greeves decided to leave the trail-motorcycle market to concentrate on the development of a motocross model. ==End of an era==

As the Japanese entered the market place, with Suzuki dominating the European Championships from 1970 to 1973, sales began to slow. The last civilian Greeves road bikes were produced in 1966 these being the 25DCMk2 'East Coaster' and the 20DC 'Sports' single in black, but in 1968 the company produced a batch of 19 24DF police bikes with 250cc Villiers single cylinder engines, 15 for the Staffordshire County Police and 4 for the City of London police ==New Greeves==

The old Greeves motorcycles were ideal for the new "classic" (twinshock) class of trials but parts were scarce and expensive, so trials rider Richard Deal started producing replica parts, and then a replica motorcycle called the Anglian. In May 1999, after gaining control of the trademarks of the Greeves name in the UK, USA and Europe, a new Greeves company was founded in Chelmsford which restarted production of mainly trials models. The new company started building and rebuilding Greeves motorcycles from 2000 and established a replacement parts division. Continuing a tradition started by Bert Greeves, the heads, barrels, crankcases, and aluminium frame beams were manufactured from new castings produced in a specialist alloy foundry. The new 280 cc By 2009, the company had built 22 Greeves Anglian motorcycles, four Greeves Pathfinders, and had completed some restoration projects. In 2007 a decision was made to develop the first completely new Greeves trials motorcycle for over 20 years. Working with the students at DeMontfort University in Leicester, Greeves engineers consulted with participants involved in the Rapid Product Development MSc project to design and develop a completely new displacement lightweight two-stroke engine. To enable existing components to be used in the new engine, parts were scanned using the centre's Renishaw Cyclone Reverse Engineering machine. Rapid prototyping models of the new engine were then manufactured on the centre's 3D printing machine to check the fit before manufacture of prototype cast metal parts. GPD Developments, a foundry in Nuneaton, Warwickshire manufactured castings using a new method of printing sand moulds directly from computer-aided design (CAD) data. Prototype sand moulds used this new technique to cast prototype parts. The 280 specification included Marzocchi aluminium forks, Dellorto carburettor, the fuel tank located close to the rear wheel to reduce the centre of gravity, and a single shock absorber mounted centrally on the swinging arm. The frame, headstock, swinging arm, footrest hangars and engine components used 6063 aerospace-quality aluminium. In May 2025 the following statement was agreed and subsequently released by Greeves Motorcycles Ltd and British Bikes 1970: Greeves Motorcycles Limited has sold all its interests, goodwill, and intellectual property rights in classic VILLIERS and GREEVES motorcycles, parts, components and spares to BRIT HUBS LIMITED trading as BRITISH BIKES 1970. BRITISH BIKES 1970 is now the EXCLUSIVE LICENCEE for the GREEVES UK trademark under registration no.: UK00901956317. Greeves Motorcycles Limited will no longer deal in classic GREEVES motorcycles or motorcycle parts, components, or spares, or restoration services. For all sales, maintenance, service, and restoration enquiries for Classic Greeves Motorcycles, please contact Gary Bamford atwww.britishbikes1970.com/about-contact " ==See also==