One Last Jump

JustCallMeDave · 11-30-2007, 12:56 PM

Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, Jr. has made one last jump into the beyond at the age of 69.

RIP.

pearl · 11-30-2007, 01:17 PM

A true American to the core. He bled red, white and blue.

Always liked the guy and his no BS way he approached life.

Fast Water · 11-30-2007, 01:23 PM

I met Evel in a restaurant in Moses Lake called Barney Googles in the mid 80's. Real nice guy. Seemed overly concerned about my safety as he repeatedly asked me if I wore a helmet when I rode my bike. He looked a bit disheveled and someone mentioned he just had a stint in jail somewhere. I think his life was falling apart on him at that time. A few jokes, a few parlor tricks and he stumbled out on his way.

Rest in peace.

RODACTION · 11-30-2007, 01:27 PM

Very sad, Evel had many Americans glued to the television, kids with wide open eyes as he did his thrill seeking jumps and stunts.

I know I had cuts and scrapes from jumping my stingray over homemade wooden jumps, trying to be Evel.

RIP...Evel

fishstik · 11-30-2007, 01:55 PM

I just love the story of him when he took a baseball bat to a reporter that wrote some untrue things about him. He had a good friend hold the guy while he beat him becouse evel had casts on both arms

fishbait · 11-30-2007, 04:42 PM

A man that could face his fear and stuff it in his shirt pocket for awahile.

Admire him for making something happen in his life and taking the bull by the horns.

He was a great showman and from what an acquaintance told me one time a good dad............

Rest in peace

Trick · 11-30-2007, 05:28 PM

I bet most of us in the 30-40 age range had a whole bunch of hospital visits due to this guy as kids.

I'll sure miss him and his 35 broken bones.:frown:

pearl · 11-30-2007, 05:57 PM

Quote:

I know I had cuts and scrapes from jumping my stingray over homemade wooden jumps, trying to be Evel.

Quote:

I bet most of us in the 30-40 age range had a whole bunch of hospital visits due to this guy as kids.

I did and still do. I'm 48 years old and still own an old Sting Ray that I sometimes jump on the weekends. Neighbor kids don't get it.

RIP Evel

RODACTION · 11-30-2007, 06:24 PM

Quote:

I did and still do. I'm 48 years old and still own an old Sting Ray that I sometimes jump on the weekends. Neighbor kids don't get it.

Thats what it's all about !! I would guess your running a slick on you stingray too !!

You speed demon !!!

BTW, they don't get it. Days gone by....

Bass-ackwards · 11-30-2007, 06:29 PM

I don't know how many wood and cinder block ramps my brother and I made when we were kids. Of course, we tried to out jump the other by putting stuff under the jump. Rocks - buckets - stuff like that. Funny, we never cleared a car.

Fairwell to a legend.

CamoHunter · 11-30-2007, 06:29 PM

Yeah, who did not pretend to be Evel back on the old sting-Ray.

I hit the banana seats harder than I wanted to a few times going over home made jumps. Evel had guts. I always tried to imagine how I would feel slowly riding up those ramps and looking at his landing spots on the other side.

Honestly, I think I would have turned around and ridden out of the place leaving eveyone still sitting there.

RIP Evel

CH

northriver1 · 11-30-2007, 07:36 PM

The man was always on stage and he could promote himself with the best of them. He was a great entertainer.

the bear · 12-01-2007, 09:35 AM

oh yea i remember all those ramps we jumped on the stingrays

thought we were so bad,,,,,then you see the young ones on there bikes today

as for the broken bones at 49 have had 25 fractures myself

some very major rebuilding

RIP Evel you are a class act

Pescadote · 12-01-2007, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RODACTION

Very sad, Evel had many Americans glued to the television, kids with wide open eyes as he did his thrill seeking jumps and stunts.

I know I had cuts and scrapes from jumping my stingray over homemade wooden jumps, trying to be Evel.

RIP...Evel

Hey Ken and Steve, I think we are showing our age here!! I had a brown stingray with a "banana seat" and "chopper-style" handlebars. My cousins and I used to build ramps in the backyard to emulate Evil's jumps. He was the ultimate in "cool" in our adolescent eyes.

Smj · 12-01-2007, 11:03 AM

I'm sad.....I just watched that documentry type show about his life here in the last few weeks. Had lots of stuff from himself on his life. The story of the ball bat incident and one of how he promoted himself to the owner of the casino in Vegas, name slips my mind now. He called the guy several times pretending to be different people, so when he eventually called and said "This is Evel Knievel", the owner was very glad he'd finally called. The storys were from his own lips, and seemed to be quite recent. He was traveling with a giant semi rig with abunch of his costumes, bikes and some of the rocket he took to the Snake River gorge.

I lived in Utah, the Snake River jump was a pretty big deal down there. I think he should have gone for it again, he would have made it if he had a decent engineer.

RIP

Smj

Dave G · 12-01-2007, 08:22 PM

Evel Knievel was the best. What he had were made of brass.

ampersat · 12-03-2007, 08:05 AM

Got this from our very own FastActionRodTip:
The last Harley he owned and rode was a 2004 Heritage Special that George Latus of Latus Motors Harley Davidson in Gladstone, Oregon gave him upon his vist here a few years ago. Evel had it customized and painted and put 639 miles on it and left it with George where it sat until the day of his death. Until now...