RIP Jeff Smith

Never saw him ride myself ofcourse, but a true legend of the sport.

Colne (Lancashire, UK), October 14th 1934 - Wisconsin (USA), March 21st 2026

2x 500cc World Champion
30 Grand Prix-victories
8x member of the MXdN winning team
53 race victories
7x British national champion

Hard to watch these guys die off. God speed Jeff Smith.

Hawkestone is a tough track even on a modern bike. Those guys were superhuman throwing those lumps around there for 45 minutes.

RIP Jeff

Talk about “O.G.”…?

My condolences to the British Motocross & Global MX cultures.

In my world, this guy is THE original moto-legacy maker.

Rest in Peace, Good Sir. 

An O.G. 100% for sure. Shame so many in our sport have no clue who he is.....damn shame

Got to meet Jeff a couple of times, a true gentleman, a winner in Motocross, Trials and Enduro. My sincere condolences 💐 to family and friends.

Couple awesome pics there!!!!! Guy looks like a Stud. I have massive respect for these guys in the OG of MX.. RIP Jeff Smith

I get arm pump just by looking at a pic of those guys hauling on those heavy barely suspended bikes!

Was announcing an AHRMA event 20+ years ago and I knew Mr Smith was riding. I waited till after practice and made my way over to where he was amongst a few friends and his adoring wife Irene. I knew I would probably never have a chance to talk with a world champion so I had to step in. Mr Smith obliged my interruption but did ask why I wasn't interviewing his friends in his class. I had to apologize and respectfully mentioned he was world champion. I did ask one question I wasn't sure what the answer would be, what was the worst part of the series back then. He simply replied, the travel was really bad back then. I couldn't imagine. Anyway I knew he lived over in Wausau and was a very private individual. I appreciated him giving me 5 minutes. 

Rest in Peace Mr Smith. Legend. 

Its unreal how recognisable the track is instantly. 

The guy was Jeffrey Herlings and David Knight rolled into one, and also a great trials rider as well. 

He was a legend through the 60's , won everything there was to win, and then retired and moved to Canada to work for Can-Am, which meant while he had legend status, he wasnt a face around the races here in the UK after he finished racing, which was a real shame, but from what i have read, he wasnt a man who courted his fame, and just wanted a quiet normal life, which is maybe why he chose the path he did. 

Was World Champion the year i was born, my dad used to ride with the factory boys, around the test tracks at Bagshot, when he was a bike tester in the Army, which was pretty cool when you think about it. 

RIP to a true giant of the sport. 

Rip, factory BSA rider!

I watched him being interviewed in my local town (bizarrely) some years ago. So interesting. Didn’t know too much about him at the time, other than his obvious accomplishments - as he was well before my era.

Said that his game plan was always to win at the “slowest possible speed”. Went on to explain that meant sitting in second the whole race, saving energy, studying his rival’s lines, strengths and weaknesses, then overtaking on the last lap.

A strategy that seems to have been forgotten over time…

Also told a story of how he got paid £5000 to go check out a potential British Grand Prix venue one day in the week. An enormous sum at the time!

Rest in peace Mr Smith. You were genuinely a legend. 

RIP

      This guy was the original prototypical motorbike racer. No matter the discipline, he was either very good at it, (trials ) or incomprehensibly fantastic at it ( MX, Enduro, ISDT, MXDN ). Mr. Smith was the best off road motorcyclist in the World for many years !  Rest in Peace Jeff, you earned it !

Jeff was an awesome guy. A 16 year old me attended one of his schools here in NE around 1975. Following wkd I won my classes. Thanks Jeff!

I grew up watching him on Grandstand TV Scrambles, in the winter, as did most of the country, he was a household name back then , along with the likes of Dave Bickers,Vic Eastwood, Rickman Bros, and all the rest. 

I would say that getting £5k to do that now would still be considered an enormous sum. 

I struggle to think of anyone who won more across so many disciplines. 

Truly one of the all-time greats. 

Never met him but was always a hero to me as I grew up learning to ride my dad's BSA Goldstar 500 in the mid 60s.

Rob, I was fortunate enough to get the second print from that painting you did of Jeff on the Goldstar. I have it hanging in my bedroom. Thank you for that. It means a lot to me. Even more now.

One of my oldest motorcycle magazines is this Cycle with Jeff on a Goldstar from 1958.

RIP to the legend, and regards to family, friends, fans. His technique was heroic in every single picture.

Jeff Smith was a FN Stud! RIP

six days medalist. made riding those old bikes look easy

rest and ride in peace now

Go Fast into the unknown. Legend. 

Always enjoyed his humor at AHRMA riders meetings. 

I remember one AHRMA race at Budds Creek.  Out in practice I saw him and Jim Pomeroy come by, I thought to myself, these old guys cant be that fast.  I pulled in behind them and in two turns they were gone. The old guys shredded 

RIP

When I was first beginning motocross in the late 1960s during college at Berkeley, I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation by Jeff Smith and Dick  Mann at the Richmond Ramblers clubhouse in Richmond California.  Not only was he proven to be the best motocrosser in the world, he was also very comfortable in front of a crowd of people, very funny with endless entertaining stories, a couple of which I remember, including being told before riding in the SoCal desert  that “rocks grow in the shade“ —a warning not to blast through pucker bushes when he was  introduced to the desert by some well known desert racers. He laughingly said he thought that was nonsense, and ignored the advice, and then the next thing he knew he was going over the bars . Also, I remember him talking about yelling at people while racing, calling them all manner of obnoxious nicknames, as they would  approach a turn with the throttle closed so that the guy in front of him could hear it and have his concentration disturbed. I remember, he called one Swedish rider of the day “Billy the pig“. At this point in my life I think it is pretty funny how old I thought  Jeff and Dick man were then, since I was in my late teens, and they were in their late 30s, but of course this was nearly 60 years ago and Jeff and Bugs in their late 30’s would look pretty young now. 

I  rode quite a bit of AHRMA road racing and motocross and Jeff Smith truly made that organization successful. And he was always present, and always entertaining and humorous whenever he presided over a riders meeting or a trophy presentation. Guys like him don’t really come along very often, and almost not at all anymore—lifetime racer, twice world champion, proven the best in numerous events and very entertaining in his retirement years on top of the rest.  With  his broad spectrum of riding talents he was one of a kind.

WINNER of the Scottish Six Day Trial 1955. You'll never see another rider win both MX GP and SSDT.  Never.

I can see it now. Jeff is up there racing Malcom for the title of “the fastest Smith”. 

Legend. 

I was lucky enough to have met Jeff a few times. RIP Jeff, you certainly left a positive mark on moto. Thank you. 

RIP.  We’re losing a lot of good people.

Every day I learn of someone that recently passed away.  It’s crazy because if I see they are over 70 I thank god they got to live a long life.  I’ve seen way too many 30’s and 40’s from cancer recently. I think it’s deprived me of death notifications and my senses.  It seems dying of old age is getting more rare, like when my grandpa passed at 92 all I could think of was how many people that don’t get to live HALF that amount.