A brief chat with... The Greeves Riders'Association

The one-make club is the backbone of classic motorcycling.

- Tim Britton

How many clubs have started up following a chance remark made during a conversation? Likely to be a few I would imagine, and it was just the case with the Greeves Riders’ Association in 1984.

In such things as a club interview, it is generally down to one volunteer to pass on and check the information – often the volunteer doesn’t realise they’ve been nominated, so thanks have to go to Colin Sparrow for not backing off when others volunteered him…

The chance remark which started the club came to Peter Smith when he was talking to the former Greeves competition manager Chris Goodfellow a few years after the factory closed. It hadn’t taken long for the Greeves spares situation to become critical and for a loose network of enthusiasts and riders to be in contact with each other. Perhaps it just needed Chris to say: “You ought to form a club…” and the Greeves Riders’ Association was born.

Once the club was in place, it needed a president and Bert Greeves was apparently delighted to be asked. In honour of his memory – Bert passed in 1993 – he remains honorary president. There is an honorary vice-president, Peter Smith, while the rest of the officials are elected in the way of clubs everywhere.

With the aim of assisting as many Greeves owners in restoring and using their machines as possible, something which is easy to see has been successful, the GRA set about tracking down the whereabouts of spares and assisting in the reproduction of rare parts. The task of helping restorers and riders in keeping their machines not only working but looking correct too, is aided considerably by the club having a massive archive containing lots of original factory material, such as drawings. This means producing parts can be a simpler task than for some.