Evel Knievel, What is the first thought when you hear his name?

**jensenracing77** · 02-19-2015, 10:07 PM

Some friends and I have been discussing Evel Knievel lately. We are wanting to see what people think of him or his jumps without looking anything up. Basically, What are the first thoughts that come to mind when you hear his name? I don't want to affect the responses so I will not give my thoughts till later.

**Joseph Farrow** · 02-19-2015, 10:20 PM

One Bad MOFO!

I can remember seeing his jumps that were televised live. Some went well and others not so well. I can still see him botching a landing and rolling like a dish rag down the down ramp.

I think he has had every bone in his body broken. He was quiet a showman as well. The build ups before the Jumps made them that much more special. IF you look at the equipment he was riding you would see that what he was doing was crazy. The Jump over the Snake River Canon was the end. Pretty much didn't see or hear of him after that.

Also I will have to admit I did have an Evel Knievel Electric Tooth Brush, Lunch Box, and a cool toy that had a pull cord that spun the rear tire and when you let it go it would pull a wheelie and also had ramps.

**Dirtweed** · 02-19-2015, 11:43 PM

I was kid in the 70s. We loved Evel Knievel...every ramp we built and jumped with our Banana seat bikes was just like him.
Tell the truth I don't know we would have built ramps without Evel.

Wonder what he would do today with the bikes we have now?

**tripledog** · 02-19-2015, 11:52 PM

Caesar's Palace. OUCH!

**El Camexican** · 02-20-2015, 12:54 AM

Snake River Canyon

**onformula1** · 02-20-2015, 01:00 AM

This is off of memory, but it was from a Knievel VCR tape from the 80's of all his famous jumps. (Not the movie)

I go down to Dayton and watch the Nascar boys race and some of the teams cheat and run nitro and they go like hell and before the end of the race they blow the hell up!

If you use dope you to will go like hell then you to will blow the hell up!

**El Camexican** · 02-20-2015, 01:03 AM

I like that he played hockey

**onformula1** · 02-20-2015, 01:06 AM

Anyone can jump a motorcycle, its easy...landing is the hard part!

**fabiodriven** · 02-20-2015, 02:41 AM

Guy was an animal. He jumped heavy old motorcycles silly distances with next to no suspension. Seems as though he may have had a death wish.

**Buck Snort** · 02-20-2015, 09:45 AM

I remember being a kid in the 70s and waiting for a televised jump for weeks, drove my parents crazy. The big day finally came and Evil crashed practicing and it was cancelled. I believe he was going to jump a shark tank, I may be wrong. Almost 40 years ago (ha ha) A true wild man!

**redsox** · 02-20-2015, 11:59 AM

i had an Evil rip chord motorcycle toy. thing must have weighed ten pounds. went like hell. i was doing jumps with it in the kitchen and blasted a hole in the plaster. dad=not too happy with Evil or myself. i was a little young, so i came in on the tail end of his career. i remember the showmanship more than anything. his events were a big deal. i couldn't appreciate then the reality of what he was doing. He was a favorite though. right up there with Andre the Giant and the Dukes.

**keister** · 02-20-2015, 12:06 PM

What first popped into my mind was a mental image of him standing there.
Wearing shades and a white (leather?) jumpsuit.
Always very patriotic, red, white and blue with stars on it....
.... and a cape. I think he often wore a cape. Seems like nobody wears a cape these days.

**ironchop** · 02-20-2015, 01:01 PM

Evel + XR750 Harley + huge jump = epic jumps & crashes

I used to yank that zipcord on my little toy XR so hard that little plastic Evel would wheelie his way across our kitchen floor, launch off mom`s overturned cookie sheet laid over a glass Litre Coke bottle and cleared over 75 HotWheels and 4 Matchbox cars in one shot. I drank a tall glass of tang to celebrate my successful stunt afterward and shared some Fruit Rollups with my buddy Rick.

Those were the DAYS! Whoop Whoop! \0/

**poolieZerUK** · 02-20-2015, 01:13 PM

Always on tv in the middle of the night over here, was a treat to stay up and watch.

Can't really remember much about the actual jumps other than that they invariably ended in an ambulance ride.
Had the motorcycle windup toy, that thing did some crazy jumps, usually from the top of the stairs, remember taking it to Ireland where Evel jumped maybe half a dozen Holstein cattle coming out of the milking shed from a ramp on the roof.

By far one of his finest jumps, bit of a messy ending but no ambulance ride.

Did he used to use a Harley for jumps? Will have to have a butchers on youtube.

He was as mad as feck, and as hard as nails.

**jb2wheels** · 02-20-2015, 02:08 PM

The cane and it's contents.

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Evel Knievel, What is the first thought when you hear his name?