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Or was he just mental and crashed a lot? (Obviously this has come about as a result of the toddler bikes on main page).
I definitely remember him being a total idol as a kid and even having a pull back and let go motor bike toy for which i would set up many deaf defying trick in the hall way.
But really did he just crash a lot?
epic fool
game lad though
Thats exactly what i thought.
Promoter." come on son - you can do this"
Knievel " Ok boss, i wont let me fans down. Please get plenty of bandages and soup ready"
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wasn't there a lady who did just as dangerous jumps as him (was on the evel documentery/that hammond top gear geezer) had never heard of her until the doc (she should be just as recognized as evel)
I would say he was of the same genepool as josh bender
Game for a laugh, unfortunately not bright enough to see what he was doing was slightly dangerous for. He stood out as others were simply not stupid enough to do what he did on the bikes of the day
He was a showman. No idea if their was anyone else [i]better[/i] at the time. If their was they weren't a good enough showman to get noticed.
Barry Sheene was another. He may not have been the best but he knew how to be famous.
admittedly he was jumping for distance as opposed to air time, but I can't but notice that the angles of take off and landing are vastly different to the ramps that the MX freestylers use. Based on what we know now, would these jumps be more likely?
No where near enough high-vis in Harry_the_Spiders clip.
Some things don't need explanation, Evel Knievel comes into that bracket......and it mean as kids we got someone to look up to when taking our Raleigh Strikers of some sweet jumps.
And we got these at christmas:
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Do Metal Mulisha do a line of these?
That was the badger. One of my favorite ever toys up there alongside Raleigh burner and millennium falcon.
Snake river jump in a rocket. Difficult to see how there's room for his enormous baws in there.
He wasn't in the same league as Travis Pastrana ect
I was just about to compare him to Josh Bender but someone else beat me to it.
If he died with plenty of cash left in the bank then he was hardly a failure IMHO.
He wasn't the nicest of guys either
best back flip evvaaaaaar!!
you cant really compare evel to travis pastrana, for one thing, the equipment available to evel was absolute CRAP compared to even a half decent modern mx bike.
for another, H&S would never allow pastrana to attempt some of the things evel did.
this is not an attempt to 'diss' pastrana in any way.
it would, im sure, be interesting to see pastrana on evel's harley,
and evel, on a modern bike.
Have you the mental stuff he does? It's the motorsport equivalent of jackass
He deserves hero status simply for his choice of bike.
Even back then, there were plenty of light, high powered motocross bikes around with long travel suspension.
An XR750 wouldn't be my first choice for a jump bike.
IIRC Harley paid him to use their bikes
your only ever as good as your last jump!
Right place at the right time. Same as Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Evel was an old-fashioned hero. He was famous for actually trying and sometimes doing stuff.
That he often failed just made his successes that much more appreciated.
And as said, he did it on a bloody Harley not a MX bike. Big balls.
Absolute nutter.
you cant really compare evel to travis pastrana,
Travis might be as mental but he has way, way more talent.
a True Daredevil!
Wife beater - check
Average motorbiker - check
Made a heap of dosh doing crazy stuff - check
I admire him for the latter.
you forgot alcoholic drug abuser!
I had one of those whizzy motorbike toys. It was crap.
The Travis comparisons are pointless, like comparing Muse or someone to Led Zep and saying Muse play their instruments better. It doesn't matter, one is a legendary icon of 20th century popular culture, the other is just a face in the crowd relatively speaking.
And so the Knievel myth crumbles.
Well if you need a new hero, how about Eddie Kidd? Britain's very own stunt jumper world record holder from the 80s. Ended up paralysed after a crash in the 90s. This year he entered the London Marathon to raise money for a children's charity. One month in he has just passed the 16 mile mark.
As a show man and self promoter the man had few rivals.
As a successful motorcycle jumper he was hopeless, used a Harley Davidson for gods sake. His potective clothing was ..... well lets face it a leather suit and a cape was never going to cut it.
Brave or just plain insane is open to debate.
I reckon Evel Knievel was more a Daredevil.
Bud Ekins was a stuntman and excellent rider, as was his mate Steve McQueen.
As TJ say he was paid to ride an overweight underpowered Harley instead of the better lighter faster European bikes.
Knievel was good at crashing though
Yeah, imagine doing that stuff on a harley, i mean really a frigging harley!!
Well if you need a new hero, how about Eddie Kidd? Britain's very own stunt jumper world record holder from the 80s. Ended up paralysed after a crash in the 90s. This year he entered the London Marathon to raise money for a children's charity. One month in he has just passed the 16 mile mark.
+1
Saw a report on tv the other week, Eddie doing his marathon.
Very humbling.
He was a dickhead.
He chose the most pointless bikes (American) to do crazy things. He crashed an enormous amount because he didn't plan things properly, didn't employ professionals to work stuff out for him, didn't take the right precautions and basically just winged pretty much everything he did.
And had balls the size of melons. He TOTALLY works for me. He was shit but he was ace. 90% of the stuff he did was doomed for failure before it even started, which didn't matter. He broke stuff all the time, rockin!
To quote from the man himself.... "better a has-been than a never-been...". Guess it applies to the current crop of Idol "stars" ("never-shoul-have-beens" :-))
Where does courage start and stupidity end?
Fab bit of poetry about Evel:
it seems that back in the day it was a lot more noble to be as mindlessly brave as he was...
and risking your own safety to enjoy a lifestyle isn't neccesarily stupid..
I guess some folk would rather live that way than measuring every decision and working their guts out to be a dull nobody with nothing and no-one..
which is maybe what he feared he might have become had he chosen a job as a bank clerk or petrol pump attendant..?
Some folk choose to live fast and die young.. maybe Evel inspired a generation of winos and slackers..?
hmmm.. I now have to run an errand or two.. I [i]will[/i] be wearing a seatbelt..
I guess some folk would rather live that way than measuring every decision and working their guts out to be a dull nobody with nothing and no-one..
But you could work your guts out TO be someone, couldn't you? Like most top athletes... (jump/freeride stars included)
+1 for Eddie Kidd - he was and still is, cool as.
I remember when he jumped the Great Wall of China:
I also remember him nearly running me and me dad over in his Vauxhall Frontera at a motorshow in the early 90's.
😀
Yeah, but he only jumped it widthways. Did he ever compete at MX or similar? Is there vid of that? was he any good?
But you could work your guts out TO be someone, couldn't you?
yes
"Yeah, but he only jumped it widthways."
He's not going to jump it length ways is he? 😀
Now that would be something to see!
Just have to jump in about H&S and Pastrana. I dont think there were any H&S bods consulted when he had this idea!
Pah, that's a full sus motorbike.
If he was proper hardcore he'd have done it on a hardtail.
Or a kids tricycle.
Evel Knievel was very good at being Evel Knievel, trying to compare his technical abilities with others is sort of missing the point. What we know of him now (the drink, drugs, wife beating and borderline insanity) makes no difference to the way I saw him as a kid - he was a hero in my eyes back then, and I'll stick with my fuzzy, seven year old kids memories now, thank you. 😀
He deserves his status for using just about the heaviest 'non' jump bike ever. Harley's are traditionally used by split personality accountants who want to look 'sick' at the weekends by wearing leather chaps and tassles on their bars, it's not the best or easiest bike to jump on.
I'd like to see Danny Macaskill emulate some of his tricks on a 35kg DH bike, that may be somewhere in the same league as Evil......
All Harleys are not the same.
An XR750 yesterday.
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Not quite an Electraglide, but not quite a Honda CR500 either.
Not quite an Electraglide, but not quite a Honda CR500 either.
Yes, when the japanease turned up and beat harley at flat-track they changed the rules to ban them.
Still cool though.
From memory, so could well be wrong, but wasn't it the Kawasaki two stroke triple that provoked the rule change.
Insanely fast down the straights, but without the controllability of a slow revving four stroke twin for drifting round the corners.
This led to problems with the Kawasakis leading in to every corner, then holding up the other bikes as the pootled round afraid to hit the power band while cranked over.
Nothing to do with nationalism or protectionism. 😉
With Kenny Roberts riding it. Can't remember the brand but I'd guess Yamaha, but Kenny's link with them may have come later.
In fairness Kenny was delighted that it was banned 😆
Now you mention it, Kenny Roberts and Yamaha sounds familiar.
Anyway, how about another picture of an XR750 being drifted on one wheel and one foot.
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Based on what we know now, would these jumps be more likely?
based on the maths I learnt at school those take off ramps aren't exactly going to launch him a long way
barnsleymitch - Member
makes no difference to the way I saw him as a kid - he was a hero in my eyes back then, and I'll stick with my fuzzy, seven year old kids memories now, thank you.
And with reference to the original question, barnsleymitch has it.
He was great if you were 7.
I wonder how many of our parents* watched him and thought, "What an irresponsible idiot". I must ask my father.
Btw, my brother had the toy bike which crashed down the stairs on a daily basis, and I had the campervan. Playing with dolls, even if they were Knievel dolls..... 😉
*parents of those of us who were kids in the 70s.
MidlandTrailquestsGraham - MemberFrom memory, so could well be wrong, but wasn't it the Kawasaki two stroke triple that provoked the rule change.
It was a yamaha tz 750 two stroke race bike - Kenny roberts riding it. He had a button to cut out one cylinder as it would not run part throttle very well. Just mad.
EK inspired millions of kids around the world. Despite his family life issues which we, as kids couldn't give a fek about, got all me and my mates on bikes jumping drain ditches and pipe laying drainage system outlets back where I lived in FL.
If you weren't seen with a Stars n Stripes cape on on your 10th birthday, then you were most deffo ghey.
I still aspire to those sideburns.
I still aspire to beating my M'sus up,
I still aspire to snuffing coke through $20.00 bills,
I still aspire to having my own TV prog.
All hail gold medallions, wild hair, capes, huge artics full of bikes and blonds in tight jumpsuits.
Whats not to love about him??
Erm, check Extreme Sports channel now! THAT is BIG! 255ft jump 😯