Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125698
... It~s not the jump that hurts.. ~ w it~s Z W ..J C,) >C,) Above: Bob and his flying Bul pass the rd'th car. He landed well past it, both wheels at once, like a cat. Standing on padded pegs and gripping tank with his knees absorbs much of the shock. Below: A very happy young man, safely back on the ground. Bob GiU has made 25 such flights, with no injuries - yet. the laRding was 14, and this year supported himself for the first time entirely on .his race winnings. While touring in the Midwest with another pro turned daredevil, Steve Mallory, Bob got the inspiration to try his skill at jumping for "something to do in the Winter," and set about learning all he. could ,from Mallory. Bob has been appearing at various By Ken Dunlap events in the Southeast for about three months, and has made 25 jumps with· A tall slim young man with long out injury. He gets around $700 for two straight blond hair broke away from the appearances. group of men who were discussing last "I suppose I could ask for more," he minute details. He walked with that said, "bu t I'm not established yet. If . stoop-shouldered posture that some tall you ask. for too much money, promen, the ones who don't care' to impress moters get uptight if it doesn't draw a you with their height, have. big enough crowd. Besides, most pro"What kind of car do you have?" he moters can't afford too much." asked. I told him it was a Toyota and The bike used is a stock Bultaco Indicated how high. "Good enough. Pursang. "It's got plenty of torque for Would you mind it being one of the the wheelies, and still has enough steam cars?" to get up speed for th~ jump." The rear By that he mean t one of the cars shocks are set on "hard", 3/8 inch parked doorhandle-to-doorhandle at the spacers lind heavyweight oil stiffen the end of a 36 foot ramp from which he front forks, and the footpegs are 112 was going to launch himself in a few . inch steel bar, heliarced to the frame, minu tes. The advertising in .the paper and padded. with dUct tape. Tire preshad proclaimed that this daredevil was sure is decreased considerably f~r landgoing to jump over five cars - a distance ing on pavement. "I used to use a of 35 feet - but one of the cars hadn't Kawasaki 360, but after a few jumps we arrived. found it had stretched three inches." It would have been easy to refuse, The Bultaco so far has remained the for Bob Gill is not the domineering same siZe, although minor damage is a type.. But the same quiet, easy-going common occurence. manner that doesn't lIllIke demands also I Bob's 'Wife since June, Emma, inspires confidence. Watching himwork" brought a fITe extinguisher up and set it in the pits, checking bolts on the steel along the guardrail near where Bob would land. She is a short. pretty, dark haired girl of 17 who acts as if she did this every day. Daring exploits run in her family: Her father' races snowmobiles in New York State. Emma really does, this every day, helping Bob practice. "We set the ramp up, and put markers in the ground.," he explained. "Then she watches me from the side and tells me if I'm doing anything wrong, like nosing down or tubing ramp supports. answering ques· having the front wheel too high." tions from little kids who want to know The bike's attitude is determined by if he's going to get hurt, and explaining where Bob cuts it off: "We've found to the photographers how he will perthat if I cut off too soon, like at the form the jump, you know he's done this foot of the ramp, the nose goes down before. So I said go ahead and my litt~e and I land on about the fourth car." My red Nip gained a modicum of immortalcar was the fourth one. "If I cut off too ity sitting in the middle of Sunshine far up the ramp the bike comes down Drag Strip. on the rear wheel." Landing on paveBob Gill, from St. Petersburg, men t rear wheel first is not recommendFlorida, looks much younger than his ed: "You can mess your back up." 25 years. He has been riding since he The announcer called for a bre.ak in the drag races. and Bob and his helpers lifted the sections of the ramp over the guard rail and began bolting it together. Three tubing braces, shaped like sawhorses, support the plywood covered 2X4 ramp surface. The sections are bolted securely to the braces, an operation which Bob oversees with justifiable care. The ramp is light, designed to be carried in the panel truck, and can be set up and torn down in just a few minutes. The crowd at Sunshine was their usual ho-hum selves. TheSe people have seen all kinds of acts, and they act suitably unimpressed at the preparations taking place in front of them. Bob helped one crew member with a troublesome bolt, and took a walk up the ramp and bounced on it, while others began lining the five cars up at the end. The announcer explained to the crowd all the different ways Bob could get killed if he miscalculated, "-and if 'he shuts it off too soon he will land on top of one of those five cars you see being parked out there right now." Yeah, my car. The photographer from the newspaper wanted to know about where Bob would land, "in case he does get messed up; maybe I'll be able to catch him.".A crew member asked him to hold the tape on the futh car. "Lessee, now, five cars is thirty-five feet, so he'll need about, hmm, fifteen. He'll land 'er right about here." He indicated a spot 60 feet from the end of the ramp. Bob was almost ready. "Where's by kidney belt? Got to have that." He found it and cinched it on, "Keeps my guts in place if something goes wrong," and he grinned. Somebody hollered, "Hey. where's the fire eX,tinguisher?", and there was.a flurry of activity to locate it, sitting by the guard rail. "Stand a little bit past where he's going to land," one of the helpers said. "That's in case he starts bouncing when he comes down." Bob, leathered and helmeted, started the Bul,. which looked awfully spindly now, and goosed it to clear its throat. "There he goes," called the loudspeaker, "he's going to go down to the end of the strip and come back wheelstanding." Bob wheelied back and held up his hand to indicate one more pass; the engine wasn't quite warm yet. Then Bob rode to the startinf line, the Bul in full song now, turned around and blasted toward the ramp. "There he goes, ladies and gentlemen, jumping over five cars on a motorcyde," but he shied away at the last instant; the first one is always a fake pass. The second approach was a little faster and suddenly the Bul was on the ramp, almost a blur, Bob cut off, and the bike sailed silently over our heads and landed about 20 feet past where he was expected to. :The bike landed flat, like a cat; it even squatted on both tires. Then Bob cut it on and began wheelying back to the ramp - this time out of sheer exhuberance at having done a number on Death once more. For the first time in the history of Sunshine Dragstrip the crowd gave a standing ovation. Bob had jumped 80 feet after leaving the ramp, and had landed perfectly. If he did it once more tomorrow he would collect $700. A later check of the bike revealed that the front brake hub was cracked. "When I was wheelying back it felt kind 'Of loose, bu t I figured it was a wheel bearing. They break all the time." The rear tire was also flat. "The spokes had come loose and pushed through the rim in about ten places. That's pretty common. I'll fIx it in the morning." I asked Bob if it bothered him that. a large number of the people who came were there to see him get hurt. '~No, not really. At any event there's going to be a certain number of people who came to see blood; even the drag races." He thought a moment. "And in my case, that's why they're paying me." noes he have any plans to become another Eve! Knievel? "I don't know. I've thought about ft, but I'm not sure." By now a large crowd of fans was gathered to congratulate him, and ask a barrage of questions. One of them, promoter AI Lamphire, walked up and shook his hand. "You know, you had enough room to get three more ·cars under there." Bob's eyebrows raised. "Eight cars? Really?" He looked at the ramp which had been lifted back over the guard rail. "Eight cars ... that'll be about fifty-six feet ... right about here. HJnmm ..." Emma Gill drew a deep breath and sighed; she's been through this before.