Awesome video. Evel was a King to me and my pals in the 70's. Robbie has filled his shoes to an extent, but there is always a void there. No other jumpers ever will reach that spot in the national psyche. It was a place and time in history we will never see again!
Guitarmike Hi Mike, (I’m a life time guitarist too) You are so right. I told my wife that anything this guy did was so much more dangerous than the guys today. My 5 sons are all 22 to 35 now and raced Moto-Cross. All but the last two. I as a dad saw people dying over stupid stuff. A spark plug had vibrates loose and when the racer was about to hit a triple jump, when he went to nail the gas, all you heard was the engine bog down because the plug case out. He ended up facing the front of the landing area and was killed. As a dad, I think Robbie is straight up telling the truth. He wasn’t pushed into this. My kids all wanted to race but the last season is when everyone was getting more into doing back flips on bikes. What makes a good rider great is they have to be smart, but they have a screw loose too. You have to have some stones to hit these jumps even at 60/70MPH. The difference is you may have three people on the side of you, one behind you so if you crash and he’s in the air, he’s landing wherever the bike decides to. Which may be on you. But Evel created a new sport. He wasn’t a daredevil alone. These were extremely orchestrated jumps. And no one, not even Robby could have made these jumps on a Harley Davidson no matter how much they had been modified. I’ve jumped MX bikes and when you’re in the air is when you get a breather. I think Gary Wells tried good duplicate that Caesars Palace jump on a Montessa. (If you know for sure, let me know) But he should have made that easily with a bike even in 1980 that had as mu much travel in the suspension as any MX bike did. But Evel was limited to what he could do before it wasn’t a Harley anymore. The 1974 jump, I was in 4th grade. This was the period Harley’s (of which I own two) were owned by the bowling machine manufacturer, AMF. They were the final nail in the coffin for Harley until they had their comeback by people who knew that Harley’s were more than a bike. They were a lifestyle too. I was a little kid and played with anything Evel Knievel. As for the Snake River Canyon stunt, it was all stones again but hardly a motorcycle. The guy he paid $1million dollars to because he was the best at parachute design, but then paid someone else to do it was a really weird choice to me for Evel to just “go with the flow with.” The design didn’t consider the G forces Evel would be experiencing going from 0 to 300 mph in 4 seconds. He had cleared the canyon with the chute out. The wind brought him back into the canyon side. I live outside of Chicago in the south suburbs. This is so hard to believe but he has his autograph. But my dad went to have a beer at a bar maybe 5 miles from the house. He gets there and he sits down and he knew as soon as he sat down and saw the mans face it was Evel Knievel. My dad said he couldn’t have been more nice towards anyone. Just down to earth and “one of the guys” this day.....I think he always was. He just had a little bit of a bad boy image that he may have earned. But from my perspective, as a Christian first and from what my dad sat and talked to, he wasn’t a bad guy. He was an American Original and one of the real sports heroes we had that wasn’t taking steroids to win until the people in sports caught on to why like in baseball, a skinny Sammy Sosa came to the majors as a twig. He was good but he never was a clutch hitter. The only real homer run king there is still is Babe Ruth. He spent his first 5 years with the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher. Batting every fifth day. When he replaced Papa George Halas who started the Bears and the NFL after his baseball career in left field, he was crushing a ball that wasn’t made like they are today. They call today “the live ball era.” Because the balls are wound much tighter. They pop off of the bat. Imagine if they added 17 games to a season like all he guys had in the nineties. Or like with Barry Bonds, a dead pull hitter. When they built the new Giants Stadium, it had the shortest right field in the league. I think they that his more than Ruth need an asterisk after their names. I also feel anyone who says they beat Evel Knievel needs to beat him on a comparable or I prefer the exact same bike. There’s no comparison with what he jumped with and they used. Just like guys becoming massive who were never big in the first place but because they shot up steroids to get bigger and stronger, add to that they played in the live ball era, Ruth would leave Comiskey Park in between innings and get some hot dogs during the game was the best hitter the game ever seen. Just two comparisons that to say people beat Evel Knievel on a CR-250, YZ 250, or a KX 250 is just not comparing apples to apples. Wells blew the Palace jump. The bike easily made it. Evel was short because of the pick up the bikes lacked back then. All American innovator. RIP I believe in 2006 or 2007.
The Evel bike toys with the pull cord were the fastest toy i had/have ever seen, man those things shifted, i remember the Pink Panther car was ripped off the Evel bike toy.
He Told another interviewer years before that he always took ONE shot of whiskey (not Toquilla) before a jump to loosen up a little, and that it also kept him "relaxed" during crashes, minimizing injuries! That theory is sound and been proven, but it likens the chance of the crash in the first place lol.
This interview shows why Robbie could never match evel as a superstar. He was a better jumper but that’s not where it’s at. It’s the quick wit and self deprecation that allowed evel to amass so many adoring fans.
The way I look at it is before Evel, there was nothing. Before Muhammad there was no other boxer like him, and, of course, before Elvis, there was no Rock. So Evel paved the way for all the other daredevil bikeriders...including his son. But the ones that followed Evel had one major difference and that was they had dirtbikes. Bikes that were made to be ridden in the dirt. Evel used street bikes like Harley Davidson and Triumphs (in his early years). Evel wdnt like to hear this bcs he was old-fashioned. But he influenced me, big time, bcs I loved riding my dirt bikes! And it was bcs of him that I wanted to ride in the dirt. And he didn't care for women who rode dirt bikes or the women daredevils.
I was the head stunt coordinator on a Burt Reynolds picture in nineteen hundred and seventy one. On a rainy morning, with winds up to 10mph, the director needed a key shot to keep the suits in Hollywood off his back. He had paid top dollar to Mr. Robert Craig Evel Knievel to perform a difficult, but very makeable jump. Ol' sideburns and chest hair had taken his shot of whiskey and given the thumbs up that he was ready to go. What happened next? Does anyone still care?
I was in Las Vegas the day of Robbie's jump. INCREDIBLE!
Awesome video. Evel was a King to me and my pals in the 70's. Robbie has filled his shoes to an extent, but there is always a void there. No other jumpers ever will reach that spot in the national psyche. It was a place and time in history we will never see again!
Guitarmike Hi Mike, (I’m a life time guitarist too)
You are so right. I told my wife that anything this guy did was so much more dangerous than the guys today. My 5 sons are all 22 to 35 now and raced Moto-Cross. All but the last two. I as a dad saw people dying over stupid stuff. A spark plug had vibrates loose and when the racer was about to hit a triple jump, when he went to nail the gas, all you heard was the engine bog down because the plug case out. He ended up facing the front of the landing area and was killed. As a dad, I think Robbie is straight up telling the truth. He wasn’t pushed into this. My kids all wanted to race but the last season is when everyone was getting more into doing back flips on bikes. What makes a good rider great is they have to be smart, but they have a screw loose too. You have to have some stones to hit these jumps even at 60/70MPH. The difference is you may have three people on the side of you, one behind you so if you crash and he’s in the air, he’s landing wherever the bike decides to. Which may be on you.
But Evel created a new sport. He wasn’t a daredevil alone. These were extremely orchestrated jumps. And no one, not even Robby could have made these jumps on a Harley Davidson no matter how much they had been modified. I’ve jumped MX bikes and when you’re in the air is when you get a breather. I think Gary Wells tried good duplicate that Caesars Palace jump on a Montessa. (If you know for sure, let me know) But he should have made that easily with a bike even in 1980 that had as mu much travel in the suspension as any MX bike did. But Evel was limited to what he could do before it wasn’t a Harley anymore. The 1974 jump, I was in 4th grade. This was the period Harley’s (of which I own two) were owned by the bowling machine manufacturer, AMF. They were the final nail in the coffin for Harley until they had their comeback by people who knew that Harley’s were more than a bike. They were a lifestyle too.
I was a little kid and played with anything Evel Knievel. As for the Snake River Canyon stunt, it was all stones again but hardly a motorcycle. The guy he paid $1million dollars to because he was the best at parachute design, but then paid someone else to do it was a really weird choice to me for Evel to just “go with the flow with.” The design didn’t consider the G forces Evel would be experiencing going from 0 to 300 mph in 4 seconds. He had cleared the canyon with the chute out. The wind brought him back into the canyon side.
I live outside of Chicago in the south suburbs. This is so hard to believe but he has his autograph. But my dad went to have a beer at a bar maybe 5 miles from the house. He gets there and he sits down and he knew as soon as he sat down and saw the mans face it was Evel Knievel. My dad said he couldn’t have been more nice towards anyone. Just down to earth and “one of the guys” this day.....I think he always was. He just had a little bit of a bad boy image that he may have earned.
But from my perspective, as a Christian first and from what my dad sat and talked to, he wasn’t a bad guy. He was an American Original and one of the real sports heroes we had that wasn’t taking steroids to win until the people in sports caught on to why like in baseball, a skinny Sammy Sosa came to the majors as a twig. He was good but he never was a clutch hitter. The only real homer run king there is still is Babe Ruth. He spent his first 5 years with the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher. Batting every fifth day. When he replaced Papa George Halas who started the Bears and the NFL after his baseball career in left field, he was crushing a ball that wasn’t made like they are today. They call today “the live ball era.” Because the balls are wound much tighter. They pop off of the bat. Imagine if they added 17 games to a season like all he guys had in the nineties. Or like with Barry Bonds, a dead pull hitter. When they built the new Giants Stadium, it had the shortest right field in the league. I think they that his more than Ruth need an asterisk after their names. I also feel anyone who says they beat Evel Knievel needs to beat him on a comparable or I prefer the exact same bike. There’s no comparison with what he jumped with and they used.
Just like guys becoming massive who were never big in the first place but because they shot up steroids to get bigger and stronger, add to that they played in the live ball era, Ruth would leave Comiskey Park in between innings and get some hot dogs during the game was the best hitter the game ever seen.
Just two comparisons that to say people beat Evel Knievel on a CR-250, YZ 250, or a KX 250
is just not comparing apples to apples. Wells blew the Palace jump. The bike easily made it. Evel was short because of the pick up the bikes lacked back then.
All American innovator. RIP I believe in 2006 or 2007.
Evel Knievel this dude had extreme courage and confidence .
Knievel Legacy! Great memories! Continues...
Love Evel. He's so frank.
Thanks for the upload!
The Evel bike toys with the pull cord were the fastest toy i had/have ever seen, man those things shifted, i remember the Pink Panther car was ripped off the Evel bike toy.
great father and son...
He Told another interviewer years before that he always took ONE shot of whiskey (not Toquilla) before a jump to loosen up a little, and that it also kept him "relaxed" during crashes, minimizing injuries! That theory is sound and been proven, but it likens the chance of the crash in the first place lol.
I saw Evel jump on consecutive nights in Philly and Robbie once in Atco, NJ. Evel made it both nights, Robbie had a horrible crash.
I didnt realize Evel was at Atco NJ jump , I was right there at the landing ramp, bad crash!
@@allmack2 No. Evel didn't jump at Atco
This interview shows why Robbie could never match evel as a superstar. He was a better jumper but that’s not where it’s at. It’s the quick wit and self deprecation that allowed evel to amass so many adoring fans.
The way I look at it is before Evel, there was nothing. Before Muhammad there was no other boxer like him, and, of course, before Elvis, there was no Rock. So Evel paved the way for all the other daredevil bikeriders...including his son. But the ones that followed Evel had one major difference and that was they had dirtbikes. Bikes that were made to be ridden in the dirt. Evel used street bikes like Harley Davidson and Triumphs (in his early years). Evel wdnt like to hear this bcs he was old-fashioned. But he influenced me, big time, bcs I loved riding my dirt bikes! And it was bcs of him that I wanted to ride in the dirt. And he didn't care for women who rode dirt bikes or the women daredevils.
Hell of a "MAN"!!
Robbie became a good drunk just like his dad, too.
And they both died young. RIP to both
I was the head stunt coordinator on a Burt Reynolds picture in nineteen hundred and seventy one. On a rainy morning, with winds up to 10mph, the director needed a key shot to keep the suits in Hollywood off his back. He had paid top dollar to Mr. Robert Craig Evel Knievel to perform a difficult, but very makeable jump. Ol' sideburns and chest hair had taken his shot of whiskey and given the thumbs up that he was ready to go. What happened next? Does anyone still care?
I could be off. :)
@@jamesbingham1007 I wanna know!!!
Hell ya, I'm curious too
@@Guitarmike don't keep us in suspense
Evel Knievel didn't do this. Evel never did stunts for any film
Brass balls!