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Evel Knievel dead at 69


rainbowdemon

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A very interesting individual. That jump was in a suburb of Dallas and I remember the spectacle being in the news although I didn't go to see it. That was back in the day when I used to spend all my time and money racing.....mostly motorcycles but really I would race anything I owned that was self propelled including the van I used to haul the motorcycles around. :lol:

:rip1:

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A very interesting individual. That jump was in a suburb of Dallas and I remember the spectacle being in the news although I didn't go to see it. That was back in the day when I used to spend all my time and money racing.....mostly motorcycles but really I would race anything I owned that was self propelled including the van I used to haul the motorcycles around. :lol:

:rip1:

Ever jump over 36 mack trucks with your cycle?

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Ever jump over 36 mack trucks with your cycle?

no. I said race motorcycles, not jump.....although I did have it off the ground a few times and the front wheel stayed off the ground way too much. :lol:

I used to drag race and did a little road racing. No flat track or motocross.

.....Lots of street racing. :happy:

My most memorable jump was when I blew through a stop sign with the police chasing me at about 120-130 mph (about 200kph). I was still in 4th gear and about to shift into 5th. I was watching the tach and the rear view mirror and not really focusing on what was ahead. The street I was on was considerably lower than the cross street which caused the bike to sail past 2 houses in the air and landed half way past the 3rd house. I was riding my brother on the back and he came off the bike vertically but managed to hang on to me which pulled me up and off the seat. I hung on to the handlebars which caused the front end of the bike to lift until we were both well off the seat. When the bike landed we both fell back on the seat and I managed to keep it up but was unable to navigate the slight zig zag in the road so we wound up on the sidewalk (and in a couple of people's yards) for a block or two until I could get back into the street. The cops gave up the chase. I'm sure their car fared poorly at the hump in the road but I didn't go back to see.

I still can see the houses and parked cars go past as we sailed through the air. It seemed like slow motion. I thought we were never going to come down. The bike landed rear wheel down at more than 45 degrees. All I was thinking was "Keep the mofo perfectly straight or we are screwed".

That's my wild man story for the day. I have others but that one is the best jump story. :lol:

Did I ever tell you my nickname back then was "crazy"? After I quit riding motorcyles and started spending more time at the gun range people quit calling me that. :dunno:

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My most memorable jump was when I blew through a stop sign with the police chasing me at about 120-130 mph (about 200kph). I was still in 4th gear and about to shift into 5th. I was watching the tach and the rear view mirror and not really focusing on what was ahead. The street I was on was considerably lower than the cross street which caused the bike to sail past 2 houses in the air and landed half way past the 3rd house. I was riding my brother on the back and he came off the bike vertically but managed to hang on to me which pulled me up and off the seat. I hung on to the handlebars which caused the front end of the bike to lift until we were both well off the seat. When the bike landed we both fell back on the seat and I managed to keep it up but was unable to navigate the slight zig zag in the road so we wound up on the sidewalk (and in a couple of people's yards) for a block or two until I could get back into the street. The cops gave up the chase. I'm sure their car fared poorly at the hump in the road but I didn't go back to see.

I still can see the houses and parked cars go past as we sailed through the air. It seemed like slow motion. I thought we were never going to come down. The bike landed rear wheel down at more than 45 degrees. All I was thinking was "Keep the mofo perfectly straight or we are screwed".

I pity the poor animals if you can ride a sheep like a motorcycle :(

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Damn lucky that's all.

but remember:

motorcycles......All I was thinking was "Keep the mofo perfectly straight or we are screwed".

sheep...............All I was thinking was "Keep the mofo perfectly straight and they are screwed".

:lol:

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Damn lucky that's all.

but remember:

motorcycles......All I was thinking was "Keep the mofo perfectly straight or we are screwed".

sheep...............All I was thinking was "Keep the mofo perfectly straight and they are screwed".

:lol:

Baaaaaaaaaaaaa :lol:

post-9-1196583846.gif

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Jim Rome: So what did you think your chances [of jumping the Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered bike] were?

Evel Knievel: Fifty-fifty.

Jim Rome: Fifty-fifty?

Evel Knievel: Fifty-fifty. The rocket had been designed by Bob Truax Jr., an egotistical know-it-all little bastard who was one of the engineers at NASA who was there when they burned Gus Grissom to death on the launch pad. He built the parachute so that it absolutely would fail under the G-load. But the way I see it: If I had made it, no one would've cared. If I'd died, they would've said, "Well that's what's supposed to happen to daredevils." Here it is thirty years later and I don't see no bunch of Daredevils lining up to take a shot at it.

Jim Rome: So if you had a fifty-fifty chance, a coin-flip's chance to survive, why did you do it?

Evel Knievel: ...

Evel Knievel: Do you know who the hell I am?

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