Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1546787
October 2026 37 cousin Derry, who had become Bert's Sales Man- ager, the company brought their first 2-wheelers to market. Those first models included a Scrambler and two road machines. As was not uncommon among small, independent manufacturers of the era, Greeves motorcycles u lized outsourced motors, in this case from the Bri sh firm Villiers, fi ng a 197cc unit to the Scrambler models. Right from the start, Bert's new machines each featured a very dis nc ve chassis. Drawing on his engineer- ing knowledge, Bert created a unique cast-alloy beam running from the steering head to the front of the engine, made from a combina on of sili- cone and aluminum. All early Greeves machines also used a leading-link-type front suspension. Bert's version of this system had the linkage pivot- ing on "rubber-in-torsion" spring units with small, Girling brand hydraulic dampers fi ed within the fork tubes. Although the arrangement may sound extremely crude by today's standards, the system actually worked extremely well, especially in tough, off-road compe on. Greeves motorcycles quickly proved themselves to the point that the Bri sh ISDT team asked Bert to provide them with bikes for that year's event, where the brand earned its first gold medal. Buoyed by this success at the ISDT as well as in Observed Trials compe on, Bert decided to expand into the growing off-road segment of Motocross and, in 1956, signed Brian Stonebridge to compete on a new 250cc model in the Europe- an MX Championship. In addi on to his skill as a rider, Brian was very adept at two-stroke tuning and became the company's Compe on Manager and Development Engineer. Compe ng against the domina ng 500cc four-strokes, by 1957 at the Hawkstone Park Motocross event, Brian succeed- ed in taking first place in the 350cc class and sec- ond against the 500s. Then, in 1958, Stonebridge led a three-person Greeves team at the West German ISDT, where he won a gold medal. Tragically, Stonebridge lost his life in an auto- mobile accident in 1959, following which Bert Greeves signed motocrosser Dave Bickers to head up the off-road race team. Bickers then rewarded his employer by delivering the 1960 and 1961 250cc European Motocross Championship. Since there were no championship rounds outside Europe in this era, Bickers was effec vely the '60 & '61 World Champion. Beyond motocross racing,