Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127846
o TIME REMEMBERED lAX WrldChampionJeff Smith •• (Photos described In Jeff Smith 's own words) (Above) "Jeff Smith head and shoulders, about 1966." (Left ) "Early Belgian event, 1967. Steel swing arm - no disc brakes, seco nd titanium frame (ultima tely used on potent 250)." By Eric Johnson o you think that the exotic factory bikes of Doug Henry, jeff Emig, je remy McGr ath, Steve Lam son, Kevin Windham and Greg Albertyn are trick? We ll , th ey are - b ut wo u ld yo u believe that in 1966 the most ambitious fac to ry- ba cked develo p me nt effo rt in the history of motocross materialized on the lhen-esteemed FIM 500cc Grand Prix circuit? Read on, an d we 'll spin you a tal e ·tha t, even in this d ay and age, is hard to believe. The year was 1965, and BSA - commonly kn own as Birmingham Sm all Arms - w as b e n t o n rul in g th e motocross world. Keen on winning its th ird co nsecu ti ve FIM 500cc World Motocross Cha m p ions h ip, th e fact ory execu tives of the Birmingham , Englandbased motorcycle company held a corpora te conference in a smoky, dimly lit back room a conference to which the ac co u nting bean-counters were no t invited. It was in this room that their ambitious master scheme of producing the fas test a nd ligh test motocro ss bike ever conceived was hatched. Through this corporate mission statement, the BSA overlo rds - perhaps intoxicated by the success of their previous two wo rld titles - declared tha t all of the'factory's resources were to be imme> 26 d iately tooled up and utilized in a quest to clai m a third consecutive FIM Gold Medal , In d o in g so, the a cco u n tin g ledger was chucked into the trash can, and the eng i nee rs, fab ric ato r s and machinists filled thei r coffee cu ps and set abou t the task at hand. Enter jeff Smith, the talented English rider wh o had delive red BSA its previous tw o hig h ly coveted wo rl d titles . Smith, who was tapped to rid e the exotic new "shadow works" project bike, was bro ught on boa rd during the develop men t process; a nd soon joined th e pool of mach ini st s and e ng ine e rs in transforming the bike from a blu eprint in to a real -li fe, gas -d rin king p iece of machinery. It was at this point that the intrig uing tru e story of BSA's attemp t to im pose "to tali taria n rule " on th e motocross wo rld began. And like many great, timeless stories, when all was said a nd d on e, bo th BSA a n d jeff Sm it h wo uld end up riding an emo tiona l roller coas ter that would serve up hope, joy, disappointment - a nd ultima t el y , traged y. "I believe the enginee ring depa r tmen t - and some of the executives within BSA - mad e a d etermination abo u t moving forwa rd with the p roject sometime in ea rly Septem ber," recalled jeff Smith from his office a t the Am eri can Historic Racing Motorcycle Associat ion in Wiscon sin . "At that point in time, I had not been drawn into any di scu ssions abo ut the project. I then att ended a few committee meetings in 'October where I sa t d own a t the table with all kinds of engineers who seemed to know what they were talking about. And it was there tha t I learn ed tha t they we re already thrusting in the di rection of producing all kinds of pa ris for t~e bike out of titanium." As the pro ject bega n to come to life, it was soon determined that timing - not cost - would be th e m ost for mid ab le obs tacle . BSA - at the tim e, one of th e world's largest motorcycle manufacturers - knew tha t their backs were u p against the wall, as the 1966 GP season was much closer than they had actu ally a nticipa ted. Having the bike designed a nd fabricated in tim e for the season opener in Switzerland would be no easy task. "In the autumn of 1965, the BSA project suddenly became quite a ru sh project, because there wasn 't a great deal of time to make it all happen, due to the season sta rting in March of the following yea r," Smith said. "Early rumblings of w hat was to be done began in Septem ber, and the fina l machine was put tog e th e r in late Febru ary and ea rly March of 1966. So it was reall y a ru sh pr oject, especially since we w ere usi ng materials most peo ple w ere not familiar with." However, despite all of that, the pr oject wa s quic kly gree n-lig hted and all systems we re go. BSA, having captured the previous two FIM 500 cc titles through its crea tive an d res ou rceful competition department, now wa nted a third title - at all costs. However, as with