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Book report: Malcolm! The Autobiography

Feb 06, 2020

Being into vintage bikes, I often find vintage riders pretty interesting. Malcolm Smith is no exception.

Many motorcyclists first heard of Malcolm Smith from the 1971 movie “On Any Sunday” by Bruce Brown. As a kid growing up around motorcycles, I remember him from the movie as the soft-spoken guy with the infectious smile, the one who could kick the ass of anyone brave enough to leave the starting line of a dirt bike race with him. A lot of us older, off-road motorcyclists have always looked up to Malcolm as a legend who has won more competitions than most of us could ever imagine.

Behind the scenes shot from "On Any Sunday" of Mert Lawwill, Steve McQueen, Bob Bagley, Malcolm Smith and Bruce Brown. Image from "Malcolm! The Autobiography."

"Malcolm! The Autobiography," written by Malcom Smith with Mitch Boehm, gives you the full story in the clearest detail from cover to cover. It is a large, coffee-table-style hardcover book, so it does not travel well, but its size provides a fitting display of a collection of photos from Malcolm’s life. The photo of him on the cover, racing across the desert on his Husky at face-warping speed, is enough to make us question his sanity. 

Malcolm in his element, desert racing his Husqvarna. Image from "Malcolm! The Autobiography."

During his racing career, he won eight gold medals between 1966 and ‘76 at the International Six Day Trial (ISDT), later known as the International Six Day Enduro (ISDE), an event where riders must not only compete in the race, but are also responsible for repairing their own bikes throughout the competition. He also won some of the toughest races on the planet, like the Baja 1000 and 500, Roof of Africa and Rallye D’Atlas. The list of races he has won or placed very highly in goes on and on, including fourth overall in the 1988 Paris-Dakar Rally. He won on a variety of machines, from motorcycles, to buggies, to VW Beetles, to trucks. Some of the injuries he sustained during those races are enough to make the toughest readers squirm.

Malcolm putting a 1983 Husky 250 to work. Off-road motorcycles advanced rapidly between 1975 and 1985, going from short to long travel, drum to disc brakes and air to liquid cooling. It must have been a wild ride, competing on such a wide variety of machines through those years. Image from "Malcolm! The Autobiography."

Malcolm’s autobiography goes beyond racing by detailing a long life of working in the motorcycle industry, starting at Mott’s Motorcycles at just 15 years old. He mentions a funny conversation with plastic fender inventor Preston Petty about how his new lightweight, unbreakable fenders would never catch on since “Fenders are made of metal!” He talks about how he started his own product line, “MSR” (Malcolm Smith Racing), and his shop, Malcolm Smith Motorsports, now a 70,000-square-foot powersports dealership he owns and operates with his wife, Joyce, and kids, Ashley and Alexander, in Riverside, California.

Malcolm in front of the K&N shop he ran in the early days. Image from "Malcolm! The Autobiography."

He also shares details of his family life and many special friendships. In 1998, he started the Malcolm Smith Motorsports Foundation, which is a non-profit foundation to help educate children at the El Oasis Orphanage in Baja in an effort to give back to Mexico for what they’ve done for off-road racing for so many years. The book ends with a postscript with some highly entertaining stories about Malcolm, written by his friends.

Malcolm and Joyce at their wedding. Image from "Malcolm! The Autobiography."

What really drew me into the book were so many parallels between my personal lifetime of obsessing over motorcycles and Malcolm’s. From getting bit by the two-wheel bug as a little kid, riding with friends, learning to work on bikes well enough to eventually work in a shop, getting into racing and learning to go fast by slowing down a little and later on running his own shop. Also, learning how to find the balance between working, riding, racing and being with family is something a lot of us struggle with and can relate to.

Obviously, I am no Malcolm Smith, but what I loved about his story is the fact that a lifetime obsession with a silly little vehicle that can’t even stand up on its own has given him such a rich and full life. I’ve spent most of my 40 years on this planet involved with motorcycles in some way and thankfully I have been able to make a living doing so for a good chunk of my adult career. Reading about such an interesting and incredibly tough guy like Malcolm Smith helped reassure me that I, and likely a lot of you, are on the right track.

The standard version of the book is available for about $46 on Amazon or you could get an autographed deluxe edition from the man himself for about $100.