Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

An Evel Arrival t was only I 15 feet, but it may have been the most significant distance that that a young man called Robert Craig Knievel ever traveled . Over the oasislike fountains of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Neva da, Evel Knievel's career was launched - with a crash . The year was I967, and America was in a cultural quandary. C o nflict was everywhere. The hippie movement was gaining ground, as was the deadly momentum of U.S. involvement in Vietnam . A microcosm of the upheaval, motorcycling, too, was trying to find itself, arguably fighting a losing battle in an attempt to gain respectability among the general popu latio n. On December 3 I, Knievel gave it a huge leg up. "The rest of the motorcycle industry, and I don't care who you name, was still about rodeo arena-type, dirt-track performing areas," Knievel, now 65, says. "The best that they could do was Ascot Park . There was a lot of difference between being a Las Vegas showman and driving a car at Ascot Park." Ascot had given Knievel his start in the motorcycle daredevil business , and he had made a decent go of it for the first few years. Yet he knew that to make the great gains that he was seeking in his life , he would have to take greater risks. The fountains at Caesar's Palace wou ld provide the perfect opportunity. "I decided that no matter how long that jump was, if I made it, I would go down in history as a real conqueror," Knievel remembers. And so the drum-beating began . Evel Knievel was going to jump the fountains . The louder that Evel beat the drum, the more they listened , wondering just what kind of individual was this who would risk death for the enjoyment of others. Some said he was crazy. Knievel's extravagant flamboyance o nly fueled the fire further. "I rea lly tried to come off as a cross between Elvis Presley and Liberace," Knievel says. "I tr ied to be as first class at everything as I cou ld. Everybody thought that I was loaded with money, but I didn't have a dime to my name . I borrowed money from a friend of mine, from Aggie [Ascot promoter J.C. Agajanian] and from my grandmother to go to Las Vegas and stay there fo r the month that I was there, working on the takeoff and landing area with one other mechanic and carpenter with me - same man. His name was Art Parker." On the day of the jump, it all came together. The fro nt of Caesar's was jammed w ith people. They lined the streets, and they climbed on top of other casinos' marquis signs - all to get a glimpse at the emerging hero. Conservative esti mates had the crowd at over 15,000. No way, says Knievel. "It was a lot more than that ," Knieve l claims . "The Vegas newspapers were reporting 50,000 to 100,000 people. They 30 YEARS AliO. .. I 82 February 5. 1974 A cartoon depict- ~~~t:~~~ ing a Japanese man just showed up by the thousands to be a part of it." And Knievel was not surprised in the least. "Not really," he says. "I expected it." The short accou nt is that Knievel fired up his Triumph, made a few warm-up runs, and then sailed into history. He cleared the gap, but he lost the handlebars as he careened down the landing ramp . The ensu ing crash remains one of the most devastating mo torcycle wrecks ever filmed. Much of the throng was horrified , but others got exactly what they came for. "That really doesn't bother me ," Knievel says when thinking about those who wanted to see him fail. "Back then, those distances were so far, and nobody had ever done them. Today, there are several of them doing it now. This stunt jumping, with all the tricks that they do on the motorcycles, is just spectacular to watch. The first Harleys I ever jumped had rigid frames and cast -iron heads. I don't know how I eve r jumped them." The aftermath ; They didn't think that Knievel was going to live. His pelvis was smashed, his hip broken, and he was unco nscious for 29 days. Yet he pulled through, his legend even stronger than his body, cause for speculation that had he not crashed , he might not have been so "lucky." "I've have always wondered about that," Knievel says. "Yo u know , I had signed the deal to jump the fountains three times . I was the first performer that ever represented Caesar's Palace outdoors. We had hired a great . public relations firm [before the jump], and we rea lly t hought that they would make something out of it. But I don't think that the press would have come out of it nearly as much if I hadn't been hurt so bad . But who's to say?" It's a moot point. After Caesar's , Knievel went on to become one of the greatest showmen of the 20th century, grossing some $350 million as he checkered success with bone-crunching failure FEBRUARY 4,2004 • CYCLE NEWS until hanging up his leathers for good in 1976. Today, he says he has no regrets. "I really made it in life, and in the motorcycle business that I chose , because of my love for motorcycling and being the best in the worl d at riding the way that I could," he said. "I know they say that Kenny Roberts was a lot greater rider and that there were other guys that could outride Evel Knievel. There were. I was a fan of guys like Ge ne Romero, Skip Van Leeuwen, Sammy Tanner, Roger Reiman any one of those guys fro m that era. We all had a special respect fo r each ot her, and we still do to this day. We all kind of lived a certain life together that was specia l." Today, although Knievel no longer doe s his th ing on two wheels, he still gets around . "I feel good about my life and the way that things are going," he says. "I go to different motorcycle stores. Some of the stores in the Sout h get together and have an Evel Knievelday. And in Butte , Montana, they have 'Evel Knievel Days' in rec ognition of things I did as a young kid the re and late r on in life when I tried to help out the town. I just recently worked w ith Clear Chan nel, helping them with some promotions that they were doing in the Dallas area. There was never a minute that we nt by w here there weren't 100 peo ple standing in line, waiting fo r an autograph. I was so pleased to see that." And these days, the only thing that Evel Knievel asks is that he be respected for the respectability that he brought to other motorcyclists. "I did a lot fo r motorcyclists all arou nd the world as far getting them respected," Knievel says. ''And I did it without wearing greasy boots and dirty gloves and a black jacket that stunk like hell. I wore a white jacket , w ith the red, white and blue on it. And I tried to be number one." After December 3 I, 1967, Evel Knievel was number one . eN 40th Anniversary on a fuel-efficient motorcycle with pockets full of money and an Arab man pickingup what's left was placed on the liOi"==d;;.,....~ cover of Issue #4, showing one artist's idea of who was benefitingfrom the oil crisis . A picture of a moped parked in front of a gasoline price sign at a local station illustrated the story inside. Regular cost 44 cents , while Supreme cost 48 cents... There was a fullpage ad for Evel Knievel Mot orcycle Che micals, which the ad said Evel personallytested before he put his name on the label... When the Bassanl Pipe company opened up a new warehouse , it held an indoor TT. Bra d Lackey and Jim Weinert were among the competitors. 20 YEARS AliO••• February B, 1984 The 1984 Honda CR250 sat on the cover of Issue #4 in honor of its test inside. We found it to have a superstrong motor and solidfront disc brake. It was helpful that it had a removable subframe as well. It retailed for $2418. Where did they get those prices?... In front of 70,30S fans at Anaheim Stadium,Johnny O'Mara (Hon) won the InSport/Wrangler Supercross Series' first round over Jeff Ward (Ka w), Rick Johnson (Yam), David Bailey (Hon) and Brae Glove r (Yam)... At said supercross, West German rider Rolf Dieffenbach showed up on a number108 Maleo250 that looked quite "Hondaesque .' He fai led to qualify for the main... Sue Fish won the 250cc Intermediate class in Santa Maria, Califomia. 1D YEARS A liO . . . February 2 , 1994 A photo of Jeff Emig (Yam) getting the holeshot and of Jere my McGrath (Hon) celebrating over the finish were utilized for the cover of Issue #4, illustrat- _..... ing the cover line "McGrath starts slow... but stillwins Houston SX." Larry Ward led most of the main on his Noleen/SizzlerYamaha, only to fatigue. Mike laRocco (Kaw)finished second, while Emigheld on to third. Ezra Lusk (Suz) led the combined East/West 125cc main from start to finish over Jimmy Button (Suz) and Dam o n Huffma n (Suz)... Ryan Hughes (Kaw) swept the 12S and 2SOcc Pro classes at Perris Raceway. James Do bb (Kaw)and Bobby Moore (Y am) rounded out the top three in the I 25cc event, while Dobb and Don ny Schmit (Y did so on 2S0s. am)

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