floydbassman

I was 12 years old when I had my baptism of fire with my first bike, a 250cc Greeves TFS (which I still have, 43 years later!). It was really snappy back then and scared the CxxP out of me at first, but I persevered and meant I had all the power I needed for the stuff we were doing at the time which was basic off road fun on wasteland and the local abandoned railway track way. I had the most powerful bike in the gang for a while until a couple of guys bought themselves Griffon scramblers. Great days. 43 years on, it feels tame compared with some modern stuff but still a very capable trials bike.

Make sure you have a good earthy return to the engine. I fitted a kill switch to my Ossa Gripper. riding round the garden, I decided to test the kill switch. Because the earthing was bad(current trying to go through the head bearings), it earthed through me instead, throwing me off the bike! I fitted a wire from the bars to the engine to cure that one.

The Wolf generator is lower output than the Clarke generator in your 1st part of this thread, Be careful with stated outputs of generators from different manufacturers. They sometimes advertise the peak output instead of the continuous output, which is the max output it can cope with all day long. Peak output drawn for too long may damage the generator`or cause annoying tripping of its overload protection.

A few years back, I was trying out my recently bought Ossa Gripper in the back garden. At one point I tested the cut out button on the handlebars while riding.Big mistake... The earth return to engine was non exsistant, no wire fitted, or removed by a photographer... It earthed through me instead. Shock Scream Crash Click Wallop what a picture!...

Hi Sstout. I was lucky with my pistons, they all came out ok.I am lucky in, being a refrigeration engineer, I have access to using nitrogen at up to 500 psi for pressurising! Had to make up a clamping arrangement to hold the freed off pistons in place while pressurising the remaining stuck ones. A bit of gentle heat helped too. I used a steam wallpaper stripper for this. Hope this helps

Could be wrong but they look in the picture like British Hub Company hubs, as fitted to Greeves and many other bikes. Has the rear wheel got a rubber cush drive in the sprocket carrier?

Had a struggle with my bleed nipple. snapped a drill in it, doh.. Did the last resort and sawed round the circumference of the aluminium collar where the nipple screws in,about 3mm down. the idea was to expose a small amount of the nipple to grip to undo. when I put the grips on the sawn off piece of ally to remove it, the nipple unscrewed with it! Cleaned with file and new nipple sorted it. The 2 allen bolts holding the caliper together, I ground the heads off with my Dremel, the threaded parts came out easily, and fresh bolts sorted that part. Back on the bike but got a weep from one of the pistons. (seals possibly damaged from heating with blowlamp trying to free the bleed nipple. Ordering a seal kit this week from Trials & Tribulations. 01694 722894. About 20 quid for a seal kit.

Watching this thread with interest. I am having the exact thing with my rear caliper....

Looked like a great day, I will make it next year (spectating as my bike is 2 stroke, Greeves TFS). Looking forward to riding the Red Tape Trial on Sunday. A good mix of 4 and 2 stroke bikes being entered.

I am going to look at a different approach to dehumidifying and heating my bike workshed. Thinking of installing a small split air con system. Finding myself in the man cave more in winter, and having bikes, tools and lathe dry plus heat in winter, it would be cheaper to run than the conventional methods. They have dropped a lot in price over the years. I got the added advantage of being a refrigeration engineer so installation for me is no problem.

Dehumidifier is best. they need a bit of heat in the air to work properly though so a small heater to raise the dewpoint temperature helps. Great for drying a bike completely after a post trial wash.

Anyone looking for a bike of this class, on ebay is a beautifully prepared Greeves Pathfinder. It has a Puch 125cc four speed motor instead if the 170cc 6 speeder. Learner legal for road work....

Thanks for the welcome guys. I was going to ride at a GEST trial last week but it was cancelled due to bad weather affecting car parking, but I will come to some future events soon. since I took this photo I hve done a couple of mods to the bike including folding footrests, I had problems with the original internal ignition coil failing when hot, no solved by using a lighting coil to power an external ignition coil and external condenser. I did a trial this weekend and the bike performed faultlessly. (just got to tweak the rider now!). Next job is to make a bashplate to protect the engine cases, I added a nice battlescar to the primary case...

Hi. Im Tim and have not long got into trials riding with a local club. My bike is a 1965 Greeves TFS which I have recently put back together after being in boxes for the last 35 years. Its interesting riding the same sections as the modern bikes, though I am riding the beginners routes for the time being!