Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Sad News ....Evel Knievel.

American motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has died aged 69.

R.I.P. my man.

That is sad news. A memory i had from a kid is seeing Evel jump (or attempt to jump) the thirteen busses at Wembley Stadium. All of us at school were so excited by the idea that this mad american had come to England to jump over some busses.

A great showman has left us. R. I. P. Evel.

Bummer but kind of amazing he lived that long with the beating he has taken over his career. He was my hero growing up. Used to jump Tonka truck in my back yard. My friends all used to.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071130/ap_on_re_us/obit_knievel

I thought that dude was too tough to ever die.

Truly an American Original...and what a Showman!

R.I.P. Evel.

sad news to all who loved watching him
that was one crazy mf

Probably one of the reasons I started riding many moons ago.
One crazy SOB,
RIP

Live hard
Die young
Leave a good lookin' corpse


2 outa 3 ain't bad

He was a true American icon. RIP Evel Knievel

R.I.P. Evel

He had to be a true nut.. I used of often wonder just what was going through his mind when twisted the gas on that harley and flung himself into the great unknown. RIP ole fellow. He also inspired me, at the ripe ole age of 14 to launch my yamaha 80 off the end of a ramp. Its was a thing of beauty. Felt like I was flying and landed her perfectly. I was hooked. The fourth or fifth jump didn't go quite as well as one of the rear shocks broke and consquently I lost control. Ended up laying in a small ditch bruised and cut up a bit. But owning to Mr. evil I got back up. Bought a set of used honda shocks from one of my buddies and was at it again. Never achieved any fame or fortune from my exploits but I did derive much pleasure and personal satisfaction from it.

A true dare devil... And an inspiration to many... His battered bones can finally...

R. I. P.

He was one of my heroes as well. I remember as a little kid (I was born in '68) building ramps and jumping my bicycle to be like him. RIP Evel

bummer. I remeber my EK electric toothbrush that was modeled after the Snake River Jump rocket and my "zip" line toy...youd pull the toothed zip thingy and the motorcycle would take off and do a wheelie...it had a EK rider.

wow...really a bummer!

Guess I should have clarified in my first post that I was jumping mu Schwin Stingray bicycle over the tonka trucks not actually riding the trucks!

Evel Knievel was born down the road a piece in Butte, America. They hold "Evel Knievel" days every year in June, I haven't made it. EK was making an appearance in Couer D Alene, ID 3-4 years ago & was plugging it on one of those early morning local TV shows in Spokane. He obviously rode a bike the 30 miles at 5 am to conduct the interview and was visibly frozen. He was struggling to form coherent sentences. I struggle to form coherent sentences at room temperature. RIP Knievel

jh

what can be said about this man that hasnt already been said??? i bet there is not a person over 30 that dosnt know the name. he was an insperation to many and will live on in the hearts of bike riders everywhere. i remember when i was a teen jumping anything and everything we could think of with our little 50-125cc bikes thinkin we were so cool being like E.K.!!!!! the legend will live on every time we see someone jump a bike over anything we will surely think of him. the human body wasnt designed to take so much punishment and yet he kept doing what he did thru it all. he was a true a-hole but was such a likeable a-hole. he is at the pearly gates telling everyone "what a ride"!!!!! he has surely earned the right to R.I.P. My flag is at half mast!!!!!

He was a childhood hero of mine but it seems everyone I talk to in Montana thinks he was a pr!ck.

The NY Times had his obituary today and it was a very nice testimonial to his impact on all things American and on motorcycling in general.
One interesting piece of trivia in the article was that his first bike was a Harley he stole at 13 yrs old. A few years later his grandma, who raised him, bought him...what else...a Triumph!
RIP
SteveB

Put any Daredevil and I mean any on one of Evels bikes
and tell them to make a jump, They would tell you your freaking nuts. The man jumped on freaking street bikes
balls of steal that one

The Harley Evel jumped on was an XR750 dirt-tracker. 320 pounds, 80hp, maybe 3" of suspension travel at each end. He always said the Triumphs he started his career on jumped better, but Harley paid him "an insane amount of money" to use an HD.
Anybody know what model Triumph he used?

He said Triumph was far and away the best bike he ever... some where in here. I didn't read the whole thing yet but thats what the search said. Evil One

Here is a cool tribute shows a few jumps he did. I don't think the people who jump today are doing much. The super cross guys do the same thing all the time. What impresses me is he did it on Triumph and HD machines that were not designed to do anything like that and had very little suspension travel. tribute

yes T-120 is the 650 Bonnie

Just made me think. I remember as a kid back in the 70's riding my little Honda XL 70 pretending to be Evel Knievel. Used scare the @#@% out of my mum.

You know I kinda thought he'd just keep going.

RIP