fb-pixel Travis Pastrana Just Broke Evel Knievel’s Record Jump Live in Vegas. - Speed Society
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Travis Pastrana Just Broke Evel Knievel’s Record Jump Live in Vegas.

Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, Evel Knievel was a little ahead of my time as far as the prime of his career, but I had a VHS video that captured not only his biggest jumps and most devastating crashes, but delved into his personal life and the man behind his larger-than-life persona and the reason he pushed himself to go bigger and more dangerous each time he jumped his bike.

Travis Pastrana shares that same desire, that same need to one-up himself and the freestyle motocross world, a world he quite literally helped create and mold as one of the sport’s founding fathers and it’s first – and many time since – world champion. He and Knievel share several personality traits, one of which is a strong desire to break records, and yesterday their fates crossed in a thrilling live event on The History Channel.

While he had several bone-crushing crashes throughout his career, one of Knievel’s hardest crashes came at England’s Wembley Stadium, where he attempted to jump thirteen buses parked side by side. As usual, it wasn’t the jump that gave the showman problems – he cleared the jump with a perfect flight – so much as the landing. Evel didn’t attempt these jumps aboard a dirt bike-style bike with a cushy long-travel suspension. Instead, he opted for a cruiser-style bike with some give in the suspension, but not much. This meant that many times, upon landing, the bike would quite literally bounce back off the ground in a violent and unpredictable manner.

As you might imagine, it took quite a bit os speed to clear these jumps, so landing awkwardly on a bike with little in the way of cushion almost always meant Evel was going for a ride, and I don’t mean the leisurely type. Knowing this, Pastrana wanted to pay homage to the originator of the sports spectacle and chose to use a similar cruiser-style bike when he attempted the longest jump ever on such a ride. Adding three to Knievel’s 13 buses, Pastrana got a running start in Vegas and took flight over a fleet of sixteen people-movers.

Luckily, Pastrana managed to not only clear the jump itself with room to spare, but tamed the bike upon landing and brought it safely to a halt, making him the new world record holder for a jump on this type of motorcycle. I won’t lie, as I watched live I literally held my own breath from the time Travis released the clutch until he landed safely on the other side of the row of buses.

 

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