Ranking greats

The "greats" should be ranked by who was the best at doing what they all line up to do...win championships...so the "greats" should be ranked by the number of races won and championships won (weighted more heavily on championship wins)...some era's had more competition than others...but most eras have only two or three guys that are real title threats and battling for the championship. 

The "fastest" riders should be ranked by the highest finishing position in the races the finished.  Sure they crashed out of a lot of races, and missed a lot of races because of injury...so they may not have won a lot of championships over their career...but when they lined up, and finished the race, they'd win because they were the fastest on any given day.   

I'm sure I missed someone. Here's my Hero's. Along with those listed. 

Malcolm Smith
Ryan Dungey
David Bailey
Guy Cooper
Bob Hannah
Joël Robert
Jeff Ward
Roger Decoster
Ricky Johnson
Johnny O'Mara
Bad Brad Lackey
Jeremy McGrath
Travis Pastrana
Jean-Michel Bayle
Stefan Everts
Ryan Villopoto
Jeff Emig
Graham Jarvis
Taddy Błażusiak
Mark Barnett
Let Brock Glover Bye
Chuck Sun
Dick Burleson
Donnie Hansen

First you would have to establish some firm criteria which makes a rider qualify as great with no exceptions or variations. Or you'd have to leave it up to opinion.

Ward. 7 titles and 7 des nations. Only rc rates higher imo.

Agreed, pretty tough to even agree on criteria though. How do you, or do you, make allowances for injuries that diminished what a rider would have accomplished?  Rick Johnson, Bob Hannah, and Tony DiStefano had their record books cut short. 

How about era, nobody talks about Gary Jones who won 4 in a row? Joel Roberts won 6 world championships, and he's nearly forgotten. 

Some of the Greats didn't have the right equipment in their prime like Falta or Pomeroy but that involves so much speculation its way too subjective.

Then we have depth of field.  How does a Howerton or Emig title compare to a runner up behind the GOAT like Windham?

Win %? I'm a huge Tomac fan, but he's taken a lot of swings to amass that number of wins. 

Interesting topic that won't ever get consensus. One thing I can say, the old adage don't ever meet your heroes doesn't stand in MX. I've never been let down, the past champions I've met are just great human beings and that should count for more than titles. 

THE LEVEL OF COMPETITION CERTAINLY FACTORS IN SO THAT GIVES RC, JS7 AND CR22 BONUS POINTS 

Id say wins, titles and the riders that changed the way a motorcycle is rode at a high level.

Championships are all that any factory cares about. End of story.

To me, and I’ve been paying attention since the late 70’s, the depth of field thing isn’t a thing.  Every era, if you look back on it given some time, was deep.  Actually most eras end up being dominated by one or two riders.  That doesn’t take away from the depth, it’s just that there always seems to be one rider who has that something extra special.  It’s Jett now.  But it was Hannah, RJ, JMB, MC,RC,JS, RV, Dunge, Eli, etc.      All of those eras had many great riders 

It is hard, just cause a guy like Ricky Carmichael won so much don't mean his competition was week, it just meant he was that much better. In the end all that matters is how many wins and championships they won.

For spectating, when we had Hannah Omara Bailey RJ Ward Glover Barnett etc every race seemed like an open book on who could win. It was exciting times, but not much TV coverage. 

List could keep growing. 
Tomac, Windham, Prado, Carlqvist, Herlings, Cairoli, Everts

If you whittle down Tiki's list to the one guy that raced dominate racers from the widest swath of eras, you come up with Hannah. He raced guys that competed at the highest level in the 60's that were still winning in his prime. All the way up to guys that would eventually win titles in the 90's. Think JMB in the desNations at 'Dilla. You may not like him but, he is a truth teller. According to him, at 8:50,,,,,,,,, https://youtu.be/gDc3yz3Uqng?si=LpVde7acRmpmGLlv

All that said, I think I recall RD saying Carmichael is the best ever. The record book bears it out.