Classic Greeves Dirtbikes From The 2025 Telford Show

In this video were going to have a look at some very nice British made Greeves Scramblers and this particular assortment was captured at the 2025 Telford Classic Dirt Bike Show, so look out for some nice “Challenger and Griiffon” models in this clip.

Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Well, hello to you all out there in YouTube land. Welcome back to Classic Dirt Bike TV, the home of old school uh motocross or scrambling as it used to be called way back in the day. Now, uh, currently here in the UK, the classic and vintage racing season is more or less done and dusted for another, uh, racing year. And, uh, basically, we’re just filling in time now until we can get started on a brand new season, which will probably be around April of 2026. Now, through the winter period, we’re going to be diving in and out of my video archives to bring you more of those uh classic bikes that I know you love. And uh to be fair, most of that footage is going to be taken from the last 10 years of the Telford Classic Dirt Bike Show. I’ve got quite a few nice bikes for you to take a look at over the last few years of that show. We’re going to dive straight into one of those uh videos now. And these are a few British classics that are filmed during 2025 at Telford. So, let’s dive straight in and take a look at these lovely Britishmade Graves machines. So, it’s certainly been quite some time since we’ve featured some Britishmade Graves bikes here on my YouTube channel. And if you’re looking for some nice Greavves racers, then this Telford Derbike show held at the Telford International Center each February is a great place to find them. And these examples that we’re going to take a look at here were found at that very show in 2025. And these bikes here are just a few of the quality British classics that I came across during my meanderings uh in that year. And of course uh once again it’s all thanks to the Greavves Riders Association for most of the bikes that we are just about to see here because uh usually uh they do tend to display some of the rarest and finest examples of the iconic Greavves uh brand. And in the last few years, I’ve certainly been uh suitably impressed with the the quality of machines that they always display. And these ones that you’re about to see are yet more of those fantastic bikes. So, anyhow, we’re going to uh start uh with these uh pair of beauties here. And just in case you’re wondering why it’s not very busy with Tilford Punters, it’s because uh these particular shots here uh were taken on the Friday afternoon, which uh was usually uh setup time. And uh for me personally, quite a good time to film all the bikes before the the crowds gather around them on the Saturday and Sunday because uh at this time there’s always plenty room to work around the bikes. Although of course the downside to that particular arrangement is that usually there’s not many people going around if you need to ask some questions on a particular machine. Right. Right. So, we’re going to start with uh this classic here, which is Ian Hodg’s 1961 to 50 Greavves Hawkton. Super rare and uh quite immaculately restored version of one of these early 1960s scramblers. Now, the history of these Hawkton Greavves was to honor the great Brian Stonebridge who finished in second position in the 1950 to 50 European Motortocross Championship who as I remember uh the 250 title in that year I think was won by the great Rolf at Tiblin. But uh other than that, Brian Stonebridge uh was also Greavves’s competition manager and development engineer, which was of course up until he was uh tragically killed in a car accident that unfortunately at that time was being driven by his then employer Bert Greavves. But anyhow, in 1957, Brian was riding a 197 CC Greavves at Hawkton Park. And uh he went on to beat some of the top riders of that time, who of course were riding much bigger two-stroke and four- stroke bikes. And uh it was because of Brian’s uh success at Hawkton Park that uh Bert Greavves decided to introduce a Greavves racer in his honor which they did title the Greavves Hawkton. And this 1961 version of that iconic bike is possibly one of the best examples that you’ll ever see. Now here you can see that even in 1961 Greavves uh were using this Ibeam alloy down tube as part of the bike’s chassis construction which for its time was certainly classed as outer limits high tech for the time. So, while most people out there still think that the modern alloy motocross bike frame only really came about in the 1990s, you can see that Greavves were doing it here more than 30 years earlier. Now, with that alloy front down tube and some small diameter steel tube structure for the remainder of the frame, this was certainly one super light little racer. [Music] And uh with regards the engine on our Hawkton 250 Greavves in uh 1961 uh they were still uh being supplied their engines by villars uh at this time but of course in the following few years. The Greavves company would then go on to manufacture and build their own two-stroke engine. But nevertheless uh this Britishbuilt uh villar’s motor for its day was uh moderately powerful and reasonably reliable. But uh when Greavves began building their own two-stroke engines, they were much better and more powerful than these early villars power plants. And in our case here, Ian’s Villar’s engine, as you can see, is fitted with the correct Amal monolock carburetor, which supplied all the premixed fuel and air uh to many brands of British made bikes in the 1950s and uh60s. And I think he’s even got the period correct garter air filter sticker here on the airbox that uh told you how to wash the filter with petrol periodically and renew its matrix annually because uh naturally these were the days before modern foam or other synthetic filter systems. And here at the front end of our Hawkton, these uh leading link front ends on these early graves were uh certainly a common feature on uh many of their models of that period. And as you can see, it was a complex layout that had a very simple pair of dampers on each side. But uh even more surprising was that uh this uh system actually worked very well in practice. Of course, it’s nothing compared to our modernday suspension systems that we have nowadays, but uh for its time, it was considered uh quite uh unique. And uh staying here at the front end of our Hawkton, we have an old school uh drum and shoe type braking system uh with of course uh the Greavves uh paddle wheel hub as I think they called it back in the day because of those uh cooling fins that they had on the outside of the drum. Anyhow, as I remember, I think these early Hawkton 250s would have had an alloy fuel tank, while of course many of the later Greavves models uh would then revert to lightweight fiberglass ones. And uh as we move on to the controls department, we’ve got the correct handlebars and all of the other period uh correct grips and cables and levers that our Hawkton would have had way back in 1961. [Music] But uh there’s certainly no question that Ian’s made a fantastic job of this bike’s restoration. And I don’t suppose there will be many of these Brian Stonebridge Hawkton 250s still going around these days, but uh surely this one here has to be uh one of the best in the country. And uh whether Ian actually won any awards on the day for his uh restoration skills, I don’t know. But uh surely uh with the quality of the workmanship on this very rare bike, it has to be worth some kind of winner’s prize. Of course, uh sitting right next to Ian’s Hawkton 250 was his 1966 250 MX3 Greavves uh Challenger. Another immaculately restored uh version of one of these iconic British classic machines and very typical of the kind of bike that you would have been able to see racing on British TV in the 1960s when uh the BBC would broadcast live winter scramble events on their uh BBC grandstand sports program. And uh usually the commentary on those uh uh events were supplied by the late great uh Murray Walker. So immediately you can see that uh 5 years on from the Hawkton model uh Greavves were still using the I-beam alloy front end uh for their chassis and the small diameter steel tubing for the rest uh of the frame. And the bike’s rear uh swing arm was again made from just simple box section uh steel. And now you can see that uh Greavves uh were manufacturing and building their own two-stroke engines. And this uh 250 here was a much improved power plant over the earlier uh villars that uh they were being supplied with for their uh earlier models. But uh this was now a simple piston port motor with a fivespeed gearbox. And as I remember, I think it was a Stefer Magneto system that supplied uh the sparks. Now the carburetor again, it was the tried and tested Amal model block and uh at the bike’s front end uh we had the banana style leading link uh front uh forks which was a similar setup to our Hawkton 250. Although this time uh the front suspension uh didn’t go up inside the fork tubes. They were simply bolted on to the outside of the legs. And as I said, this front end suspension layout might look a bit bizarre by modernday standards, but for the 1960s, this was cutting edge. And some of Britain’s top scrambling stars were very quick on this uh kind of setup. But as we continue our way down the front uh suspension uh uh also here on the front of our Challenger 250, it’s a much more conventional uh drum and shoe uh type stopping system and uh certainly different from the paddle wheel hub that we saw on that earlier Hawkton uh bike. And with regards the uh fuel storage system, the side panels and the mud guards in 1966, these would have all uh been made from fiber glass. Although my guess is here that these items on Ian’s Challenger will probably be uh plastic reproduction parts because uh those very brittle fiberglass items did suffer quite a lot of abuse on the track and breakages and replacements were very common. So I’ll be very surprised if these are still those selfsame fiberglass items. But uh in terms of their design and shape uh they are absolutely identical uh to the ones that would have been fitted to this Graves uh in the 1960s. But moving on to the rear of our 250 MX3, we had uh a simple set of uh not so much suspension units as just basic dampers because uh these suspension systems had very little movement. And uh I think it was only about 3 in that was the maximum amount of travel. And uh that’s why when you saw these bikes racing on the track in the 1960s, you almost saw the back end of the bike bouncing all over the place. But uh then again, this is uh what those uh past scrambling stars had to work with uh way back in the day. Anyhow, there was one little ingenious feature about these Graves uh rear swing arms, and that was that this left hand side of the swing arm was used as an oil storage tank for a lubrication system for that rear uh drive chain. So, uh, basically you just filled, uh, this side of the swing arm with oil, and you could then adjust the feed that dropped onto the chain with this little adjuster here on the top. So, basically, uh, this was like an earlier version of the kind of Scott oiler system that you would use on your old uh, road bike. Although uh overall certainly uh these MX3250 Challengers were decent bikes uh because they were light and of course now very quick having that new Graves engine rather than the older Villers uh power plant. And uh if you were to search YouTube and check out some of those old black and white BBC grandstand archive scrambles from the 1960s, then you’ll get a much better idea of how popular and competitive these challengers were for that period. But anyway, there’s uh no doubt at all that uh Ian Hodges knows his way around these old British Greavves racers because uh these two that he had on display at Telford in 2025 are a pair of the nicest examples that I’ve seen in quite some time. And this challenger here from 1966 is a credit to Ian’s workmanship and his classic bike building skills because uh he’s certainly uh doing the world a favor here by preserving the heritage and the history of the great uh British uh Greavves brand. Right. So uh this uh was another rare and uh quite special bike that was sitting on the Greavves Riders Association display. And according uh to my research and the bikes registration number, this one here is a 1972 380 Greavves Griffin Enduro Bike. A very rare and exotic example from the Greavves manufacturer. But just in case you’re not up to speed on your Greavves uh models, uh these uh Griffins uh were the replacements uh for the older uh Challenger that we just had a look at. Uh but having said that, this is uh I must say the very first Enduro and road registered example of a 380 Griffin that I’ve uh ever come across. And uh a few of the very first things that you notice about these uh Griffins compared uh to our Hawkton and Challengers is that this model here uh uses a conventional uh Reynolds 531 steel tubing chassis and uh a new redesigned uh engine and of course conventional style front forks as well on the front which as I recall I think were made by Serani in Italy. Although I’m sure that these Griffins uh were also available with the older Leading Link front suspension if that’s what you preferred. So let’s first just take a look at the Griffin’s engine. And uh the first outstanding feature that you do notice is that it’s got quite a large surface area for the barrel and the head. And uh they do say that uh this design was to improve the cooling of the engine as many of these Griffins were sold in the USA as desert racers. And having this big cooling fin area certainly did help the motor uh keep cooler in some of those hot and dusty uh climates. Nevertheless, the engine uh was a single cylinder 380, but uh a 250 was also available in that year. And uh the 380 in particular had a twin exhaust port barrel with uh these two header pipes going up and over the top of the engine and then connecting into just a single exhaust pipe silencer that ran down the right hand side of the bike. So, this design did help uh keep the two headers and the exhaust pipe itself out of harm’s way from anything that would otherwise damage it. And I must say, it does look like this particular bike here still has its original 1972 uh header pipes and tailpipe. Now, the gearbox at this time uh was a fourspeeder uh Albian unit that uh just simply bolted on to the back of the engine. So, uh a full strip down off the motor wasn’t required if you had any kind of transmission problems which again uh were quite few and far between on this Albian uh gearbox. And uh also as I just mentioned there, it was a pair of conventional serani forks on these later Griffins that for their time were very good suspension units and they were used uh on many different makes and models of motorcycles throughout the 1970s. And uh the front and the rear stoppers uh were again old school drum and shoe affairs which uh once more were very common on a lot of different off-roaders of uh that uh period. And as we make our way along and onto the rear of our Griffin, uh, for 1972, it probably again would have been a very simple pair of girdling dampers on the back of our British built Griffin. That only did really that, just dampen the up and down oscillations of the bike. because for that 1970s time period uh you couldn’t exactly uh call these parts suspension units because they did have little uh to no means of uh any kind of adjustment. And uh as we move on to the fuel tank and the rest of the bike’s body work uh which at this time of course were now being made of fiber glass to try and help keep the overall weight of the bike down to a decent uh level. And this uh fuel cell here would probably have held over the two gallons of premix gas. So that was usually more than enough to see you through the longest of scrambles or enduro events. But the other attractions of these Greavves Griffins is that you could uh buy them in a variety of different colors. And personally, I’ve seen these bikes in things like British racing green and uh blue. Uh I think I’ve even seen one in gold metal uh flake or in our case here a kind of metal uh flake red. So although I’m not sure exactly how many colors were available, there was certainly plenty variety. That’s for sure. Now the model that followed uh this 1972 Griffin was called the QB uh Griffin in reference uh to the Queens University Belfast where Dr. Gordon Blair, who at that time was a two-stroke expert, was commissioned by Bert Greavves to try and extract more power from the 380 motor, which I’m sure he did succeed in doing. And I think he managed uh to get another few horsesh from this engine and take it from uh what was initially, I think, about 33 horsepower to 44. And uh to reward uh Dr. Blair’s work, Greavves then renamed the 1973 model the Griffin QB in Dr. Blair’s honor. So there you go. That’s another superb and quite rare uh Greavves Griffin Scrambler. Uh this time of course configured for enduro racing and it’s also road registered as well. And I can imagine you could have quite a lot of fun uh riding some of the green lanes and the back roads on this superb uh British uh classic. Now, among all of those immaculately prepared, shiny show bikes that were on display at Telford, I came across this decidedly unmaculate version of a Greavves racer. And I think the owner of this particular example here just wanted to show everybody what one of these Greavves racers uh look like in their natural environment. And uh this one here looks like it’s just come straight off the racetrack and then put on display. And whether whether the organizers of the Telford show issued the owner with a cleaning bill, I don’t know. But it’s uh quite surprising just how much interest uh this bike was actually generating over the Tailford weekend. And I think it was because that this bike was completely different from every other machine that were in the halls over the weekend. So it was a a far cry from the many concourse two-wheelers that most of the planters came to see. Anyhow, this featured mocky pup is Chris Dacan’s 1967 MX4 Challenger uh 360. And uh again, this bike here does have the Italian Serani forks as opposed to what would have been the old banana style leading link jobs that we saw on an earlier Hawkton and uh Challenger. But uh again, these twin header pipes uh on that twin port barrel run underneath the engine this time rather than over the top like they did on the Griffin bike uh that we just had a look at. And the tank again is colored in what looks like British racing green, which was a very popular color for all manner of racing motorcycles in the 1960s. But then again, it’s quite hard to see anything on this bike uh with the amount of mud and detritus that’s all stuck to it. But then again, uh this is without doubt no show bike and it’s obviously well used and I think it’s quite important to keep these old classics racing on the track than really uh worrying about how they look and uh if it’s got the proper period correct bits and pieces bolted onto it when it’s being used. And uh Chris’s example here is most definitely well used as you can see because some of this mud uh still looks quite wet. So I’m guessing that Chris has been racing this bike in the last 24 hours or so because if I think if it was longer than that then this mud would have all dried out by now. And of course, these old uh Graves racers will of course be well used to these kind of racing conditions because as I refer back to my previous comment when I mentioned about those BBC winter scrambles when more often than not these old Graves machines would be up to their foot rests and even deeper in thick mud when they try to circumn some of those almost impassible winter scrambles uh racetracks. So there you go. That’s uh Chris Dakens 1967 360 Graves Challenger. Now in sharp comparison to Chris’s mudcoed classic, this other Chris Dacon example is his 1967 MX4 360, which is basically a cleaned up version of his uh British racing green bike that we’ve just taken a look at. And this one here will give you a bit of an idea of what that muddy green bike would actually look like after a nice wash and brush up. Anyhow, it’s uh probably fair to assume that Chris is a bit of a fan of these old Greavves classics because uh not only does he race them, he’s got some exceptional show bikes as well. And this one here again is a superb example, even although it might have uh different rear shocks from the 1960s originals. And uh actually I think these shocks look like they could be a nice pair of rock shocks, which are again a very popular choice for riders who race these older uh classic Scramblers. And uh once more you can see that on this 1967 model, we are back to using that alloy I beam front down tube as the chassis’s main spar and the usual uh lightweight smaller diameter tubing there that makes up the remainder of this bike’s chassis. And again, you can see here on the back of the chassis that the swing arm is uh still being made from simple uh box section uh type steel. And uh with regards to the engine again, this uh once more was a simple uh piston port 360 or to give it its official title, it was actually a 364. And uh again it had this massive barrel and head cooling fin uh layout which uh I remember uh the bike testers of the time saying that this uh surface area of the barrel head should be measured in feet rather than inches because it was just so enormous. But uh this time it was an AML uh 32 mm concentric carburetor that was used to feed the premix into that engine and uh to supply all the sparks. It was another uh stepper magneto system that was employed which again was uh quite reliable uh for uh that time period. And moving on to the transmission side. It was uh the tried and tested Albian fourspeeder gearbox again that was used on these Challengers. A unit that was uh as I said actually separate from the engine itself and it just simply bolted onto the rear of the motors crank cases. So, if you needed to do some gearbox repairs, you didn’t have to completely dismantle the entire engine. And uh with regards the Challenger’s clutch, uh I think I’m right in saying here that these engines did have an all metal plate clutch that was oil cooled in the conventional uh fashion. And uh they were very unlike uh other classic dirt bike clutches that usually had a combination of cork and steel plates. But uh that uh configuration of all steel plates still appear to work very well on this engine. And additionally here at the front of our 364 Greavves, we’ve got the banana style leading link forks again with those two suspension units fitted onto the front as opposed to putting them up inside uh the fork tubes as you saw on the earlier Hawkton uh model. But again in 1967 you did have the option to go for conventional Italian seranis if you wanted to or uh serani teladraic forks as I remember they were often uh called but a bit more expensive of course those forks than these leading link setups and uh I think we’ve already mentioned that uh Chris has fitted this pair of modern style rock shocks on the back of his Graves, which will replace those old basic gerling dampers that would have been fitted here in 1967. But anyhow, this collection here of Britishmade Greavves were uh just a small sample of the many bikes that were on display at Telford in 2025. Even these ones that we’ve had a look at here on the Greavves Riders Association display are just some of the finest uh British Greavves bikes you’ll see in the country because it appears that each year I come back to the show uh the quality of machines that you come across just keeps getting better and uh better. But, uh, as I said, we will be dipping in and out of the Telford show throughout the closed, uh, winter racing season, and we’ll be picking out a few nice examples that we’ve filmed from the show in the last, uh, 10 years or so. However, I do hope you’ve enjoyed this first venture from the Telford Archives with these superb British Graves bikes, and believe me when I say the best is yet to come. Right. So, uh, coming up next here on my CDB, uh, TV channel, we’re going to take a look at this, uh, very original 1981 Honda CR250B, which of course uh, wasn’t one of, uh, Honda’s finest moments. And, uh, this very original bike was filmed at Drumland Castle a few years back. And uh this particular machine here came direct from a bike dealership in uh Japan. So we’ll be taking a look at this machine in my next video posting here on my channel. [Music]