Evel Knievel 1938 - 2007

[Rocket Doctor]

Daredevil Evel Knievel died on Friday November 30th in Clearwater Florida.

As we all know, Knievel is known for his daring jumps, and. especially the attemped jump of the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in his Sky Cycle.

Centuri introduced it's version of the Sky Cycle around 1975.

Evel Knievel was 69.

[dwmzmm]

At the time the Centuri Sky Cycle kit came out, I wasn't interested; now I wish I'd gotten at
least one. I remembered trying to follow his attempt to do that famous jump across the
canyon. Knievel was certainly an American icon. RIP, my friend.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

I looked for Jay on the ESPN coverage of the Snake River Canyon jump. Dumbest thing I've ever seen. Did he have monkeys plan that for him? They said that the shipe was "part rocket, part motorcycle". Now admittedly I'm not the sharpest bulb in the drawer, but what part of that thing was a motorcycle? :rolleyes:

[Rocket Doctor]

Let's just honor the late Mr Knievel , who cares what his vehicle looked like, at least he was willing to give it a try.

Having broke practically every bone in his body, it's a wonder that he was still around at 69.

May he rest in peace.........

[Ltvscout]

Now admittedly I'm not the sharpest bulb in the drawer, but what part of that thing was a motorcycle? :rolleyes:
It had two inline wheels.

[ghrocketman]

ESPN 2 is currently running a Rememberance special "A Touch of Evel" in place of the regularly scheduled repeat of the 2006 World Series of Poker.

[snuggles]

Anyone else think an upscale version of Evel's X2 would be COOOOOL?????
With a scale launcher???
Am trying to find good pictures of the thing.
Any ideas on where to look???
Mark T

[sandman]

It was done a few years ago by Marty in TRF.

He upscaled the Centuri kit to a BT-80 main body.

http://www.rocketryforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=396&d=1034691663

[snuggles]

Thanks Gordon, I hadn't seen that before. Was it flown on a D???
Mark

[Rocket Doctor]

I was in the process of scaling up the Sky Cycle, I had all the parts cut out and pre - assembled, using a BT-70 as the main body.

I was going to submit this to Estes as part of my prototypes, but, when I was no longer needed, the project was placed on hold.

[sandman]

Thanks Gordon, I hadn't seen that before. Was it flown on a D???
Mark

I thinks so. Marty flew that about 4 years ago. Unfortunately he flew it in a 15mph wind and it went unstable.

The results weren't pretty. :(

[dwmzmm]

I thinks so. Marty flew that about 4 years ago. Unfortunately he flew it in a 15mph wind and it went unstable.

The results weren't pretty. :(

Well, the "real" one's results wasn't pretty, either :( .

[Tau Zero]

As we all know, Knievel is known for his daring jumps, and especially the attemped jump of the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in his Sky Cycle.

Centuri introduced it's version of the Sky Cycle around 1975.At the time the Centuri Sky Cycle kit came out, I wasn't interested; now I wish I'd gotten at least one. I remembered trying to follow his attempt to do that famous jump across the canyon.I ended up buying one at Aero-Tronics Hobby Supply in Twin Falls, my "regular" place to buy Centuri rockets in a trip across the canyon from Jerome.

I thought it was kind of weird to have an ST-13 rocket with a "mini-motor" (13mm) mount, but there you go. The only reason I bought it was because Evel's jump happened nearby.


I looked for Jay on the ESPN coverage of the Snake River Canyon jump. Dumbest thing I've ever seen. Did he have monkeys plan that for him? They said that the shipe was "part rocket, part motorcycle". Now admittedly I'm not the sharpest bulb in the drawer, but what part of that thing was a motorcycle? :rolleyes:(chuckling) I was only 12 years old at the time, and Mom and Dad wouldn't let me hang out with the Hell's Angels that had rolled into town. :rolleyes:

The original footage was from ABC's "Wide World of Sports." A couple of months ago, I saw a special with Evel on one of the sports channels. He said that they'd originally planned for the parachute to be placed further forward. When he got into the Skycycle, he said the parachute was further back, and taped down so he couldn't pull the ripcord whenever he wanted to. He said it was a good thing they didn't have a live microphone on him, because he was cursing nonstop at the engineer on the ground.

If you looked *really* close, you could see the parachute coming out while the "rocketcycle" was still on the metal ramp.

I did a retrospective TV news story on the 30th anniversary of Knievel's attempt back in September 2004. The funny (ironic) thing about the "part rocket, part motorcycle" assertion is that if you put a person into a rocket, it automatically becomes an *airplane* as far as Idaho law is concerned.

The land on the north side of the canyon was (and still is) owned by the Bureau of Land Management. In my research for the story, I found out that the national head of BLM refused to grant Knievel permission to land his Skycycle on that ground. :rolleyes:

Oh, and "motorcycle?" The thing was steam-powered. --I don't recall seeing very many [insert your favorite motorcycle brand here] cycles that had steam engines.

Jeez, the tailpipe on *regular* motorcycles is plenty hot enough, already. :eek: :rolleyes: --At least it was back in the 1970's. (examines inside of calf while remembering getting burned there)

(mock serious look) No, Bill, *not* a calf like the kind we had out on the farm. The *other* kind. ;) :D


Cheers,

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

(mock serious look) No, Bill, *not* a calf like the kind we had out on the farm. The *other* kind. ;) :D


Cheers,

Yeah, I was wondering why you were torturing farm animals with your motorcycle. Couldn't you just roast ants with a magnifying glass like a "normal" kid? :eek: (Wow, did that stink.)

[ghrocketman]

MMMMMM.......
Magnifying Glass Roasted ANTS !
Top 'em off with some BURNT HAIR, wash 'em down with a nice warm can of KRAUT JUICE or Vinegar and then you have a tasty, aromatic snack !!!! :p

[Tau Zero]

Couldn't you just roast ants with a magnifying glass like a "normal" kid? :eek:There *was* a red ant hill underneath the "gas tank" that my dad had out on the farm. I remember at least once trying to drown the ants (because some of them had bitten me earlier) with gasoline from the spout.

Dad wasn't real happy about that when he discovered the evidence. :eek:

Oddly enough, he knew *exactly* who had done it. :confused: :rolleyes:


Fortunately, there weren't any matches involved.


Cheers,

[ghrocketman]

Whaddaya mean "fortuanately" there were NO matches involved.....dontcha mean UNFORTUNATELY ?

If there were matches involved there, I'd be willing to bet that there would no longer have been ANY red ant problem in the immediate vicinity for quite a while.

When my cousins, friends and I were teenagers we used to get rid of large (2+feet tall and often 3+ feet under the ground) ant mounds by soaking the mound with a couple of gallons of diesel fuel, which would often bring a bunch of angry ants up to the surface.
Once they came up to the surface we would hose them down with aerosol cans of automotive rubberized undercoating, which would stick to the diesel-soaked ants.

You know what comes next.....a nice lit wooden match thrown onto the pile....this would naturally torch the ants that are coated with sticky tar-like undercoating and fuel and would burn the entire nest.

This was of course about 35 years ago where this would be considered a perfectly acceptable ant extermination method.
Nowadays there would probably be some mamby-pamby regulation against it and there would probably be a PETA protest march demanding rights for ants.

[barone]

Whaddaya mean "fortuanately" there were NO matches involved.....dontcha mean UNFORTUNATELY ?

If there were matches involved there, I'd be willing to bet that there would no longer have been ANY red ant problem in the immediate vicinity for quite a while.


Yeah, and the farms "gas tank" might not have been there either..... :eek:

[sandman]

Whaddaya mean "fortuanately" there were NO matches involved.....dontcha mean UNFORTUNATELY ?

If there were matches involved there, I'd be willing to bet that there would no longer have been ANY red ant problem in the immediate vicinity for quite a while.

When my cousins, friends and I were teenagers we used to get rid of large (2+feet tall and often 3+ feet under the ground) ant mounds by soaking the mound with a couple of gallons of diesel fuel, which would often bring a bunch of angry ants up to the surface.
Once they came up to the surface we would hose them down with aerosol cans of automotive rubberized undercoating, which would stick to the diesel-soaked ants.

You know what comes next.....a nice lit wooden match thrown onto the pile....this would naturally torch the ants that are coated with sticky tar-like undercoating and fuel and would burn the entire nest.

This was of course about 35 years ago where this would be considered a perfectly acceptable ant extermination method.
Nowadays there would probably be some mamby-pamby regulation against it and there would probably be a PETA protest march demanding rights for ants.

My father was from the "old country" and he came up with a better cheaper way to kill an ant hill when they showed up in our backyard.

It wasn't near as much fun.

He's boil a really large pot of boiling water, run outside with it and pour it on the anthill.

Very effective but no where near as much fun as gasoline.

[ghrocketman]

Probably much safer than the idiotic method of Diesel Fuel and Rubberized undercoating my cousins, friends, and I used to use.

Looking back at some of the moronic things we did back in my teenage years it's a wonder we survived, although many of them would make hilarious examples of "You might be a redneck if..."