Today in motorcycle history, March 4, 1941

  Malcolm Smith is born on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  Considered by many to be one of, if not the greatest off-road motorcyclist of all-time.

  Remember "On Any Sunday"?  Now close your eyes, listen closely and you can hear the theme song: On Any Sunday, stretching up, reaching high, leaving my Monday world behind…

  Okay, what scene plays across your internal movie screen?  Mert Lawwill broadsliding a Harley-Davidson XR-750 on the Mile?  Steve McQueen masquerading as Harvey Mushman at the Elsinore Grand Prix?  Freckle-faced Jeff Ward wheelying a Honda Z50?  There's a good chance it's Malcolm Smith blasting across Baja on a red-and-chrome Husqvarna?

  A liitle bit of history for you...at thirteen, Malcolm Smith purchased his first motor scooter, a Lambretta. At the time he was living close to the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest and would regularly explore the area on his scooter.  Being an ingenious bastard, Smith converted his scooter into an off road machine by screwing the used cleats from the local high school football team into the Lambretta's tires.

  Two years later he purchased his first real dirt bike, a 1949 500cc Matchless G9. Small for his age he had difficulty kick starting it and would often push the bike to the top of a hill in order to jump-start it.  Despite his difficulties getting the bike going, he took it to enter his first race.  In 1956 he entered a scrambles race in Riverside, California.  His only strategy was to hold the throttle wide open and figure shit out as the race went on.  His well-planned strategy lead to numerous crashes, but yet somehow Smith finished in second place.   It occurred to him on the way home from the race if he had utilized his normal riding technique which did not involve a lot of crashing, he probably could have won the event!

  By the time the sixties arrived his name had become one with Husqvarna. 

  Malcolm Smith won eight Gold Medals between 1966 and 1976 in the International Six Day Trial, the European cross-country event.

  He is also a six-time winner of the Baja 1000, three times on a motorcycle and three times in a car; a four time winner of the Baja 500; has twice won the Mint 400 in Nevada and the Roof of Africa Rallye; participated in the Paris Dakar Rally twice; and was the overall winner of the Atlas Rallye in the mountains of Morocco.

  Malcolm Smith was inducted into the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996 and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.

  His immense talent on two wheels earned him a starring role in Bruce Brown's classic motorcycle documentary, On Any Sunday, alongside his friends, Steve McQueen and AMA Grand National Champion Mert Lawwill.

  He has been leading specialty tours for the public since 1995.  His tours, Malcolm Smith Adventures, take motorcyclists on rides in North America, Mexico along the Baja 1000 route, New Zealand, South Africa, and South America.  If anyone wants to send me on one of these bike tours DO NOT hesitate to ask.

  I'll end this with an excerpt from Motorcyclist Magazine,  "...there were numerous contenders, but in the end, our quest to name a Motorcyclist of the Century was like that scene on Lake Chapala in On Any Sunday: Malcolm Smith, all alone out front, trailing a dust cloud behind him. And casting the longest shadow of any motorcyclist in history.

Malcolm Smith: Motorcyclist magazine's Motorcyclist of the Century!"

R