1968 Greeves Challenger 250 MX3
Rare and beautiful; two words I would use to describe this historical motocross machine. This 1968 Greeves Challenger 250 MX3 has been graciously shared by Joe Abbate of Joe Abbate’s Cycle Therapy. I think their work speaks for itself, but here’s what Joe has to say about his restoration.
This 1968 Greeves Challenger 250 MX3 was delivered to my shop for a complete restoration. Although it was fairly complete, it had been well used and then stored for many years. As agricultural as it appears, to my surprise, the Greeves was quite light. I was also impressed at how easily the bike was to disassemble and to work on.
Sourcing parts in the US isn’t too difficult, providing you are willing to spend some time and do the research. Ken Sykes of American Bearing in Northern California was a wealth of knowledge on Greeves details as well as helping me on getting the parts I needed.
I located the rims at a Triumph shop in San Jose and the spokes were supplied by Buchanan. The cables were reproduced by Motion Pro. The most difficult item to find was the 19 inch Dunlop Trials tire for the front. The seat cover was custom made and is an exact replica of the original.
We were also very careful when choosing the correct shade of blue for this project. The shocks were restored in house as well as any polishing and paint that had to be completed. All the original hardware was retained, polished and re-plated.
This was our first Greeves restoration and learning about the history of this great motorcycle marque was an enjoyable journey. I welcome any questions you may have about the bike. You can also visit my Facebook page Joe Abbate’s Cycle Therapy for up to the minute projects we are working on.
I suggest if you live in the Livermore California area, (or even if you don’t), check out Joe’s shop! Thanks for sharing your Greeves project Joe!
