The Kaptain’s greatest leap
Evel Knievel originally planned to jump over the Grand Canyon but was refused permission and had to rent a strip of land on the banks of the Snake River Canyon instead. In 1974 he attempted to leap the threequarter-mile wide canyon in an outrageous steam-powered, home-built rocket. Knievel was at the peak of his career and the world watched in awe as he made his bid, but it was doomed to failure. A drogue parachute was released on launch, causing Knievel and his X-2 Sky Cycle to drift down into the canyon. His career would never be the same again.
In 1999, Robbie Knievel gained permission to jump the real Grand Canyon. Well, sort of. The main canyon is far too wide to jump a conventional bike like a Honda CR500 over, so Robbie was forced to leap over a more manageable tributary instead. At 228 feet, it was the longest – and most spectacular – jump he ever made, and he even broke his leg after a heavy landing in true Knievel style.
By achieving this, Robbie had outperformed his more famous father but the hype and global attention that had surrounded Evel’s canyon attempt was not replicated for Robbie’s.
By 1999, extreme stunts were much more commonplace and Robbie also failed to market the event in the way his father had. His jump was also missing the novelty factor of a steam-powered rocket and the Woodstock atmosphere Evel’s leap created at the Snake River site. Nor did Robbie promise to bring an armoured truck with $250,000 in it for a ‘Last Supper’ party for fans in Butte, as Evel had (although he never kept his word). Knievel senior also carried out a nationwide pre-jump publicity tour and planned closed-circuit TV coverage in cinemas across America for the event itself. In short, he milked the jump for all that it was worth, while the much quieter Robbie just went about his business.
In terms of jumping, Robbie outdid his father on this occasion, but it’s Evel’s failed canyon jump that people remember. Evel Knievel passed away of pulmonary fibrosis in 2007 at the age of 69.