Malcolm and Me

As funny as it sounds , some folks are gonna say that On Any Sunday and the trio of Malcolm Smith , Steve McQueen and Mert Lawwill are not exactly Harley-Davidson / American V-Twinthemed chunks of moto culture , and therefore not acceptable as grist for a magazine that covers that segment of the sport . That ’ s hogwash , of course . Aside from the fact that Mert Lawwill spent the entirety of Bruce Brown ’ s epic documentary fighting to defend the Grand National Championship he won on a Harley-Davidson , against a bunch of other Harley-Davidsons ( and Triumphs , and BSAs ), all while being watched by race fans who rode to the races aboard a lot of Harley-Davidson motorcycles , and the fact that Milwaukee is featured prominently in the Bonneville speed record segment of the film … there ’ s the Universal Motorcycle Everyman thing to consider .

This Everyman could be Mert or Steve or Malcolm ; it could be the fat guy on the Yamaha Mini Enduro in the film ’ s opening scenes ; it could be the African American couple crashing their Electra Glide in the mud ; the unhelmeted commuter on the Yamaha two-stroke ; the desert-racing gal with the Desert Daisy jersey ; or the many off-road racers depicted throughout the film .

On Any Sunday , as most know , applies to all of us . Or at least it used to . Unlike today , motorcyclists were pretty much one big tribe 50 years ago , when OAS debuted in theaters across the country . Motorcycling was much less of an us vs . them thing back then .

Yeah , you had biker gangs at one extreme and clean-cut college kids in pretty sweaters on Hondas on the other , and all sorts in between . But motorcycle people were , for the most part , motorcycle people . Dirt bikes and street bikes of any ilk were just that – bikes – and despite the ever-present concept of brand love , folks pretty much got along and intermixed and enjoyed riding .

If there is a Universal twowheeled Everyman , it ’ s obvious that rider , racer , businessman and true enthusiast Malcolm Smith could easily be it . Malcolm had a lot to do with this edition ’ s OAS piece , too , largely because of the On Any Sunday chapter we included in his autobiography – titled Malcolm ! The Autobiography – that debuted back in 2015 . Helping Malcolm write his life story was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me , and the process itself was plenty fascinating , too . Once we ’ d mapped out the basic chapters – from his family and early years in Canada and So Cal to his recent retirement – and began organizing his massive cache of photos , we attacked each section in depth , meeting usually once a week for five or six hours and filling up a large dry-erase board with hundreds of details on what , when , who and how . I ’ d snap photos of the board every once in a while , and it ’ s a good thing , too , because one day one of his grandkids figured they ’ d use it for doodling – and erased every bit of it !

Once I ’ d gotten a chapter written we ’ d go over it word by word ,

with Malcolm making tweaks and additions when necessary until , over time , he pronounced it just exactly perfect : His story , his take , his words , his life . Then the words and images would go to my good friend and longtime art director Todd Westover for design and layout . And then more proofing . It took two years to finish , but the end result was and is epic , and the book continues to sell very well – and will , I imagine , for decades to come .

Malcolm at work during an autobiography session , with the infamous and invaluable dry-erase board nearby . It was a huge help .

While Malcolm continues to struggle with Parkinson ’ s Disease , we chat often , and he seems to be fighting the good fight , which is what you ’ d expect from the guy who could , in Bruce Brown ’ s words , do it all .

As Bruce quipped in the film , “ Nice , Malcolm …”

If you dare to go toe-to-toe with Boehm find him at longstrangetrip @ thunderpress . net . May your wounds quickly heal

4 | JANUARY 2021 | THUNDERPRESS . NET