I'm old enough to remember his heyday in the 1970s, when his jumps were on Wide World of Sports, he had a TV movie, and he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It's hard to imaginea motorcycle stunt rider being such abig, mainstream celebrity, but I would say he was at least as well known to the general public as Lebron James or Jeff Gordon are now. One of his bikes is on display in the Smithsonian Institution. And you gotta love the leathers.

 

godspeed

 

I wasnt around for his heyday but i remember his son robbie making me want to get a motorcycle.

RIP.

 

Without EV, there probably would not be freestyle motocross today.

At least not as we knew it.

Remember he made amazingly long, dangerous, and spectacular jumps on an old Harley.

It would be like one of us trying to jump 20 buses on a 1970's Honda 350 Scrambler.

He did not have 14 inches of high tech suspension, soft dirt to land on, and no one before him
really set his kind of precedent.

He made over 300 jumps and only a handful were not successful.

He was inspring and caused me and my friends to have some of the most fun and pleasant memories of childhood.

My best friend growing up and I built ramps out of cinder block and 1x4's and 2x4's
and would get our bicycles and first jump a row of dixie cups. Then we graduated to
a row of residential garbage cans, then I made my leap over my dad's old Volkswagen bug.

I scraped a knee kind of badly on that one, and my back hurt for awhile. No suspension on a Schwinn.

We would be jumping stuff from sun up to sun down.

Anyway, a condensed history of EV[quote]:Robert Knievel was born in Butte, Montana, the first of two children born to Robert and Ann Knievel. Robert and Ann divorced during 1940, just after the birth of their second child, Nic. Both parents decided to leave Butte and their two children for a new start.

At the age of eight years, Knievel attended a Joey Chitwood Auto Daredevil Show, which he credited for his later career choice to become a motorcycle daredevil.


Knievel ended high school after his sophomore year and got a job with the Anaconda Mining Company as a diamond drill operator in the copper mines. He was promoted to surface duty where drove a large earth mover. Knievel was dismissed when he made the earth mover do a motorcycle-type "wheelie" (with the front wheels above the ground) and drove it into Butte's main power line. The incident left the city without electricity for several hours.

Idle, Knievel began to get into more and more trouble around Butte. After one particular police chase in 1956 in which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving. When the night jailer came around to check the roll, he noted Robert Knievel in one cell and William Knofel in the other.

Knofel was well known as "Awful Knofel" ("Awful" rhyming with "Knofel") so Knievel began to be referred to as Evel Knievel ("Evel" rhyming with "Knievel") He chose this misspelling both because of his last name and because he didn't want to be considered "evil". He continued to use this nickname.


The first show of Knievel and his daredevils was on January 3, 1966, at the National Date Festival in Indio, California. The show was a huge success. Knievel got several offers to host his show after their first performance. The second booking was in Hemet, California, but was cancelled because of rain. The next performance was on February 10, in Barstow, California. During the performance, Knievel attempted a new stunt where he would jump, spread eagle, over a speeding motorcycle.

 

A maniac, an inspiration, he will be missed.

 

...one of his..umm...less then successful jumps...with ragdoll physics in full play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYGGCVE2lKY

 

"rag doll physics in full play"?

Ah yes, there is always someone to try and appear more intelligent than the rest by bringing up something completely
negative.

The Ceaser's Palace jump is known throughout the world as one his jumps that did not work.

Wow...thanks for sharing nothing but disrespect for the deceased and for a film everyone has seen about 1 billion times.

Best post ever.[sm=bounceybounce.gif][sm=lame.gif][sm=shutup.gif]

 

"hero's get remembered, but legends never die"

The Sandlot

 

I was watching something today on tv, and a teary eyed Evel introduced his son Robby as the best daredevil ever. Very touching...R.I.P. the originator!

 

"diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, two strokes, hepatitis C, a hip replacement, arthritis, liver transplant, 38 formerly shattered bones, including a seven-times-broken back, twice-crushed pelvis and frequently fractured legs, plus several comas, one lasting 29 days."

Wow, the legend went through a LOT!. RIP