Evel Knievel

mx317
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mx317
Edited Date/Time 6/14/2019 9:50pm
I went to Colorado last week for a little dual sporting and watching the National Motocross at Thunder Valley. On the way home I saw a billboard that said "Evel Knievel Museum" in Topeka Kansas. I had to see it! I goggled the location info and found it. It was one of the highlights of that trip! They have a bike you "ride" with virtual goggles and you do a recreation the jump in England. It was awesome! I'll share a few photos, but if you ever get the chance GO!










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mumbles
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mumbles 6/11/2019 7:00am
6/11/2019 7:00am
Thanks for that. It's a place I want to go visit when I retire. I had the fortune of seeing Evel before he was famous. It was 1967 at the Sacramento Mile flat track race. I was 11. He had brown leathers and was riding a Triumph. He didn't jump but he did wheelies up and down the start straight. They were like a quarter mile long and he was probably doing about 80. I remember hearing him shift through the gears as he popped up that wheel and gave it the beans. At 11 I was mesmerized. He was announced as Robert Knievel back then.
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DC
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DC 6/11/2019 7:07am
6/11/2019 7:07am
mx317 wrote:
I went to Colorado last week for a little dual sporting and watching the National Motocross at Thunder Valley. On the way home I saw a...
I went to Colorado last week for a little dual sporting and watching the National Motocross at Thunder Valley. On the way home I saw a billboard that said "Evel Knievel Museum" in Topeka Kansas. I had to see it! I goggled the location info and found it. It was one of the highlights of that trip! They have a bike you "ride" with virtual goggles and you do a recreation the jump in England. It was awesome! I'll share a few photos, but if you ever get the chance GO!










That's really cool! There's one in East Niagara Falls, Canada, as well called "Evel Emporium" and it has a a few of his motorcycles and lots of the memorabilia from his career...





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JAFO92
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JAFO92 6/11/2019 7:18am
6/11/2019 7:18am
Sweet ! Fitting tribute to a bonafide badass.
flatout111
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flatout111 6/11/2019 7:25am
6/11/2019 7:25am
So rad! Evel was my hero when I was a little guy. Thanks for sharing!
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GuyB
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GuyB 6/11/2019 7:37am
6/11/2019 7:37am
Headed there today.
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mx317
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mx317 6/11/2019 7:40am
6/11/2019 7:40am
GuyB wrote:
Headed there today.
You won't be disappointed! You have to do the virtual jump!
Honda Man 66 6/11/2019 8:00am
6/11/2019 8:00am
When I was a kid Ek used to stay at the Sheraton near our house. We always knew when he was there because his rig would be in the parking lot. I hung out in the lobby to meet him and got his autograph.

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GuyB
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GuyB 6/11/2019 8:01am
6/11/2019 8:01am
Great! One dead sailor jump coming right up. Evel and I have that in common. Wink
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toomanykaws
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toomanykaws 6/11/2019 8:08am
6/11/2019 8:08am
More than ten years ago at stateline CA to NV. The mall had a café that was to be built. Evel theme. They had a unit full of his stuff. Including the Skycycle. It was backlit and glassed off, As with most things it wasn't built and the next time I was in that mall it was all gone. Remember seeing the Ceasars Palace bike at Ceasars in the early 2000s. Damn that bike was small with literally 3 inches of suspension.

I been through Topeka three times and had no idea about the museum. Its a must stop next trip.
DoctorJD
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DoctorJD 6/11/2019 8:09am
6/11/2019 8:09am
Evel may have been a POS as a human being, but he's the reason I fell in love with motorcycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Before Marty Smith, before Bob Hannah, there was Evel. I worshiped him as a kid, and I tried to emulate him on my bicycle as much as I could. I even had wooden ramps that I built that were painted blue with a white stripe up the middle.

Not sure what sport I'd be involved in if it were not for Evel.
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beamer
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beamer 6/11/2019 8:33am
6/11/2019 8:33am
Cool stuff. Just looked online, Wikipedia, at his career. I think he crashed more than he was successful, the original dare devil.
TallonT911
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TallonT911 6/11/2019 8:55am
6/11/2019 8:55am
Slightly off topic, but when is Hodges EvelLive distance jump? Should be in the next month or two right?
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-MAVERICK- 6/11/2019 8:58am
6/11/2019 8:58am Edited Date/Time 6/11/2019 3:51pm
TallonT911 wrote:
Slightly off topic, but when is Hodges EvelLive distance jump? Should be in the next month or two right?
July 7th, 8pm EST.

Live on History.



Hodges is going for 2 world records.

1- Attempt to jump over more than 24 beverage trucks to best Evel Knievel’s 1971 attempt and Robbie Knievel’s 2003 record.

2- Attempt to jump farther than anyone ever has on a motorcycle, a distance that was set in 2011 at 379 feet, 9 inches.

Vicki Golden is also going to attempt to break a world record.

1- First women to attempt to break the firewall record, riding at high speed through a series of flaming wooden boards. The current record was set in 2006.
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G-man
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G-man 6/11/2019 10:37am
6/11/2019 10:37am
Great stuff thanks for sharing! Woohoo
SKIDLID
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SKIDLID 6/11/2019 10:57am
6/11/2019 10:57am
I think Evel also got me hooked into motorcycles. I only have one autographed picture in my house at this time and it is him jumping Caesars. I would like to add to it a picture of 199TP jumping it as well.
Excaliburbmx
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Excaliburbmx 6/11/2019 11:55am
6/11/2019 11:55am
DoctorJD wrote:
Evel may have been a POS as a human being, but he's the reason I fell in love with motorcycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone...
Evel may have been a POS as a human being, but he's the reason I fell in love with motorcycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Before Marty Smith, before Bob Hannah, there was Evel. I worshiped him as a kid, and I tried to emulate him on my bicycle as much as I could. I even had wooden ramps that I built that were painted blue with a white stripe up the middle.

Not sure what sport I'd be involved in if it were not for Evel.
He was no pos. Good grief
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DoctorJD
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DoctorJD 6/11/2019 12:06pm
6/11/2019 12:06pm
DoctorJD wrote:
Evel may have been a POS as a human being, but he's the reason I fell in love with motorcycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone...
Evel may have been a POS as a human being, but he's the reason I fell in love with motorcycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Before Marty Smith, before Bob Hannah, there was Evel. I worshiped him as a kid, and I tried to emulate him on my bicycle as much as I could. I even had wooden ramps that I built that were painted blue with a white stripe up the middle.

Not sure what sport I'd be involved in if it were not for Evel.
Excaliburbmx wrote:
He was no pos. Good grief
POS may have been strong, and I know he softened as he got older, but he had his share of character flaws to say the least. FFS he spent time in prison because he beat the sh*t out of someone with a baseball bat because he didn't like what the guy wrote about him.

Again, I idolized the guy, hell, in some ways I still do. But to gloss over his transgressions is to be a bit in denial.
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just James
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just James 6/11/2019 12:12pm
6/11/2019 12:12pm
When I lived in Vegas about 30 years ago, there was a dirt lot a few blocks from where I lived that had several of his old vehicles on it. None of them were restored at that time, and they were just sitting out in the open.
tzmike
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tzmike 6/11/2019 12:26pm
6/11/2019 12:26pm
I was roadracing my TZ250 at Daytona in the late 90's. I also brought my RG500 GAMMA for cruising the night life. Stopped at a red light sporting my full face and I hear other riders screaming. I look to my right and there he is. On his Harley with no lid on. I'll never forget that. Got a polite nod and off he went
dimetime
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dimetime 6/11/2019 2:03pm
6/11/2019 2:03pm
DoctorJD wrote:
Evel may have been a POS as a human being, but he's the reason I fell in love with motorcycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone...
Evel may have been a POS as a human being, but he's the reason I fell in love with motorcycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Before Marty Smith, before Bob Hannah, there was Evel. I worshiped him as a kid, and I tried to emulate him on my bicycle as much as I could. I even had wooden ramps that I built that were painted blue with a white stripe up the middle.

Not sure what sport I'd be involved in if it were not for Evel.
This is so true even though l'm not fully down with the POS designation. He was a man of his time and did some sketchy shit but that was how it was back then. No one back then was pure by todays standards. Honestly no one is today either but now people front a bullshit persona. He was however a huge influence over the kids of the '70s. That and the explosion of dirt bike culture led to just an amazing time in history.

How many of us jumped our friends and allowed them to jump over us? Milk crates or wood blocks and 2x10s made Evel like jumps for challenging ourselves. The dude was arguably THE most famous person in the world during the Seventies. Yup, huge influence in the off road explosion. That fact that we're here discussing him forty years later tell us all we need to know about how we feel about him as a culture.
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BobbyM
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BobbyM 6/11/2019 5:07pm
6/11/2019 5:07pm
What about Awful Knawful?
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mx317
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mx317 6/11/2019 5:10pm
6/11/2019 5:10pm
BobbyM wrote:
What about Awful Knawful?
He is out of jail now lol.
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