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/141011
EVElT~SET$ INDOOR.RECORD, BREAKS ANKLE . :; ~ w Z W ..J U > U By W. H. Spencer SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., Mar. 3, 197 2 - At 10: 34, Pacifi c St andard T im e o n this cool and foggy evening, Eve! Kn ievel , one of the world's great stuntrnan attempted a new indoor world's record leap of 15 cars. He was nearly successful. In 1970, at the Cow Pala ce in conjunction with an indo or mo t orc ycle event, Knievel made II cars and made it look easy, which it wasn't , not b y an y means. Ramp to ramp jumping has so many variab les that when th e jump in made, it looks easy, but everything has to be working for you to make it good. Last night, every th ing was just th at wa y. Knievel's d eci sio n to mak e tw o jum ps in two nights was d o ne so th at h e mi gh t get everyth ing in o rder fo r th e attem pt on the re co rd an d t o help p ay th e mammoth ex pen se o f carti ng his entourage arou nd. For th e T hu rsday n igh t affair, things went as smooth ly as t he fine silk sh irts he wears at press co nfere nces. His Harley -Davidson ra n well a nd th e jump was a complet e succ ess. He had a good start, h is trajectory was right on a nd th e la nding was superb. The twelve cars was his n ew re cord for the Pal ace a nd pleased b oth himsel f and th e 3 10 0 spectators attending that night. How many o f those came back for the next n ight's performance is not known, but th e cro wd approached 9,000. It mi ght have b een more but th e seating ca pacity " "3.S not as gre at as it wa s in 1970 when a st anding room o nly crowd of 12,000 fill ed th e arena an d more th an 4,000 were turned away. _ The even in g's activities included a midget au t o race, but th e people had co m e to see Evel. After the ram p s wer e set up and all was in place, the mas ter en t ered the arena am id st terrific applause. Wh en he h ad caught th e audience with h is di alogue, the scene was set, and Knievel was in complete charge. Knievel tells it like it is. He has no PR man or hired promoters to do his talking for him. Wh en he says something, it's straight from Evel, Although mention was made o f Super Joe Einhorn and his jump or 15 Evel in his classic form . Moments later. the d eath wobble, which is always less for Eve!. cars back in December, no derogatory re m ark was made about J De, just a fri endly "good luck". Back in November, Super Joe a nsw e red a chal le nge set up by Eve l wh ere there would b e a match jump wi th $25 ,000 p o sted by ea ch rid er, winner take all. Wh ile th e likelihood or th at ever happening is slight Eve! st ated th at if h e d idn 't mak e tonight's jump, he would give Joe th e $ 25 ,0 0 0 . Evel Knieve! took a lot of ex t ra runs b efore givin g the thumbs up signal. In o ne of the practices, h e hit th e take-o ff ramp with a footpeg a nd nearly d u mp ed . He shook that off with some wheel stands and stands on the seat that really got the public up. By the time he gave th e thumbs up sign, the people were n early in a frenzy. Knieve!'s set up fo r this jump was about 180 degrees differe nt fr om what anybody else h ad ever done. He was to start from on top o f the gr andstand, ride down a tobaggon ch ut e b e tw een rows of seat s t o th e a ren a flo or, then up and over to land and brake going out the front ex it in to th e parking lo t. A novel appro ach a nd o ne th at ap peared to be te chnicall y sound. As he rode up th e ramp for his final lo ok-see, he appeared quite confid ent. The down hill run seemed good, and the throaty roar of the Sportster was loud a nd clear. Up the ramp was straight and true and the angle of trajectory seemed right on. It was n't. He was going too fast and on landing the bike was hiked up too far. The tremendous load on the shocks and tires was too much and when he got the two wheels o n the ground, he was in a death wobble. T hat h e m an aged to save it as much as he did is a miracle. li e dumped. and th e c ro wd went c razy. They jumped the fen ce, and in almost no ti me, the grea t stun t man was h elped b ack into th e ar ena to tal k. Although it was later fo u nd th at h e h ad broken his ankle, his attitude was gr eat and th e p eople showed their a pproval b y giving him a long st anding ovatio n. He rem arked that he had m ade too many practices and th en stated that if he could be invited back sometime, "L'Il co m e back and do I 7 cars i r it kills me." With that he was assisted off the arena Floor, still under his own power. Whatever comes 0 r the chall e n ge and the money will b e yet another ch ap t e r in the life of the world's greatest stuntman, Eve! Knievel. NB~" RACING CASTOR R ide it , you'll like it! COLISEUM CYCLE and ORDER ACCESSORY CO. 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