Eddie Kidd & Robbie Knievel - "Daredevil Duel" 7/10/93

knievel the most famous name in daredevil jumping for more than a decade evil knievel had no peers tonight his son robbie will try to ascend to the championship throne his father once owned one that has gone unchallenged until now eddie kidd england's dark knight has become the challenger to the knievel name his reputation and ability have captured the imagination of motorcycle jumping fans throughout europe tonight these two world-class jumpers will test the limits and a duel of skill and courage flyboy productions and event entertainment in association with casino magic corporation welcome you to bay saint louis mississippi you are looking live at the premier casino on the entire gulf coast we are halfway between new orleans and mobile alabama on the gulf of mexico where tonight robbie knievel and eddie kidd meet and the first ever daredevil duel [Music] welcome to the edge where the search for the ultimate thrill has brought a crowd from five states to this jewel along the gulf of mexico good evening everybody i'm phil stone tonight the human form will confront earth's most powerful force gravity where any miscalculation a single misgiving could lead to sheer catastrophe believe me when i tell you this is an enormous event by all calculations first of all it is more than five football fields long from this takeoff tower 30 feet up to the run out more than 1520 feet away this will also be the first time a knievel has gone head-to-head any knievel with anyone in a jump off competition it has been in the making for well over a year lending his expertise tonight is a man who is one of the elite jumpers in the world today johnny airtime and johnny gone are those old vague jumping rules of the past here in 1993 we're welcoming in a new governing body and they hope to usher in brand new standards for this sport that's right phil stone exaggeration has run rampant in the motorcycle jumping industry now we've got the world professional motorcycle jumping association and with that association is coming full on sanctioned and measured jumps which is going to clean up the jumping game and create a real sport talk about the rules for this particular competition they have all changed and there's no question they are for the better in this sport of motorcycle jumping the rules they are unique to this particular jump off that's absolutely right phil stone first we're going to have a target jump the ramp gap is going to be 130 feet casino magic is putting a chip on the ramp for the target at the 160 foot point the person closest to the chip determines the winner a one thousand dollar prize will be awarded in casino magic chips next comes the competition jumps the first ramp gap is 150 feet they're going all out for distance next comes the second jump the ramp gap is stretched to 175 feet the accumulated footage of those two jumps determines the leader and the third jump the challenger can challenge the leader for the next jump and they go all out for a third and final jump joining us on the deck tonight is a man who once jumped 21 cars back in 1972 he broke evil knievel's record his name is gary davis and gary what about this competition and the motorcycles they'll ride this evening well here we are in the pit and these are the two bikes they'll be using i'm sorry here we are in the pits these are the two bikes they're going to be using they're cr500s they're stock they're not allowed to change anything except the pipes and the suspension if they the bikes are set up much stiffer to last on the on the hard coming down that they'll have also we've added this little transmitter to give you this angle here's the look from 30 feet up on the tower as he takes off he'll be looking for solid shifts making sure he doesn't miss anything right about now he'll start to accelerate you'll see the vibrations start and the bike's pulling away from him into the air he slams down for 22 feet in the air and now on the brakes for a smooth landing now that was just one of their practice jumps the jump's gonna get much larger and much rougher back to you phil all right gary johnny you've jumped more than 4 300 times in your jumping career what about this perspective never seen before well i'll tell you what that's the see the scene i've seen so many times 4 300 times and let me tell you what these guys hearts are pounding and they're going to be in for the biggest jumps of their lives and i'm super excited all right johnny let's meet the jumpers who tonight find the lure of risk simply too tempting to ignore knievel a name synonymous with two-wheel spectacles robbie grew up watching his father's exploits the marquis the crowds the heart-pounding drama served as sirens for robbie at 31 he's already flown farther than his father ever flew utilizing a style his dad rode for 13 years with huge success tonight the knievel name is on the line as the focus broadens i always only had one competitor and that was death and now i've got two competitors i've got eddie kidd and i've got dad spectacular crashes are an ever-present hazard of motorcycle jumping to fly with the eagles one accepts the risks associated with human and mechanical failure the knives share not only the same orthopedic surgeon but after years of family turmoil their father-son relationship seems to be healthy once more i just want to say i'm here to keep the name knievel the most famous on two-wheeled i'm very proud of the sport my dad created our relationship's good england's eddie kidd also has a relationship with evel knievel he brings a fire to this sport not seen since the evil era kid is much more than sheer sizzle at 17 he challenged evil to a jump off in london where knievel had christ eight months prior evil decline but getting a hold of a knievel any knievel has been an obsession of any kids one that began in 1973. i started when i was 12 years old after seeing a movie babel knievel and i started jumping on bicycles back home uh i have a huge following i'm sort of like the english or european version of evil knievel back home and when we show up to jump i jumped like from five buses when i was 15 up to eight then from eight buses i jumped 13 double deckers by time i turned 16. two months ago kid went over the wall the great wall of china it's not the longest jump i've ever done but one of the most dangerous because if i wouldn't have landed dead in the middle of that ramp i went down a thousand feet to a river and i didn't plan on doing them i'd especially into some boxes at the end and well i'm still here to tell the story about that one [Applause] and now ladies and gentlemen the moment you've all been waiting for let's get to it four rounds of super heavyweight motorcycle action from casino magic in st in bay st louis mississippi let's get ready to rumble 14 months in the making they've been here for the last 10 days going at it on the practice ramps hand-to-hand combat to be sure well all of the pyrotechnics are out of the way all there is left now johnny air time is the jump itself and now we've got the cut of the cards both robbie knievel and eddie kid coming over the lowest card will have the option of jumping first robbie with the face card seven of diamonds you're up eddie babe i'm trying to use the microphone this time okay man and there's no question this plays in to eddie kidd's psychology of exactly johnny what he wanted to do he wanted desperately to jump first well the pressure is definitely on here you've got not only the camera pressure not only the crowd pressure not only the pressure of live national television you're competing against the jump itself but you've got another man to consider another man to beat another man to push you to the very ragged limit of your capability what about the emotion of these riders you've jumped more than 4 300 times what goes through your mind at a moment like this well you've got to focus on your mission and if you blow it you blow it bad the mistake you don't want to make is the first mistake in motorcycle jumping because it's very deadly now here we've got the target jump the first jump with a 130 foot gap and accuracy is key it's a good jump to warm up on for the distance jumps but the pressure is definitely mounting for both riders the gap from the launch ramp to the landing ramp is 130 feet but that casino magic chip is located 30 feet down that landing ramp so a perfect jump here i would assume would be dead center at 160 feet that's right i would expect both these jumpers to be within about 10 feet of that that marker the dynamics of this event johnny this is not a one jump spectacle as we became so accustomed to seeing in the 60s and 70s with evil knievel tonight we have a potential for four jumps that's right and you can see what distance these jumpers are jumping we're going to tell you what the ramp gap is and i've double checked this myself also down the landing ramp is hash marks every five feet what you do is you add the ramp gap to these hash marks where the jumper landed we're going to be officially measured by spanky spangler who has tremendous experience in stunt industry any kid on the 30-foot ramp being the first jumper up eddie kidd's got a lot of pressure for just this accuracy jump and if he nails it robbie's got all the pressure on his shoulders here we go this could be a speed run he dives out of the runway comes down just to check the runway as he did virtually all yesterday until that vicious thunderstorm accompanied by tornadoes last night and then earlier today he was making that speed uh run right past the launch ramp and now as he does a high five with his crochet saunders we're set to go this will be a goal for eddie kidd the speed run is so that eddie kid can make sure his bike is running clean all the way out he can make sure his rpm is exactly where he wants it since he does not use a speedometer therefore he's going to have the right speed this time hopefully good point neither knievel nor kid with a speedometer or a tachometer this is done by the as any kid called it the seat of the pants riding that's right experience tells you a lot of jumps you can just judge by the rpm seat of the pants like he says he's got to keep his cool under tremendous pressure some riders tend to over amp and just go too fast so he may overshoot he's made 39 practice jumps over the last couple of days looking for a jump of exactly 160 feet here comes kid he was within five feet of that marker that is going to be hard to beat chas saunders is crew chief through both arms in the air he likes it and now there is spanky spangler on the extreme left as they look for his touchdown point now they find it you see the chip there at the bottom center of your screen inside that circle that is where a 100 casino magic chip has been nailed into that triple thick plywood ram it appears as if he'll be just under 160 feet probably somewhere in the vicinity johnny of 160 667 feet i believe that i think that the ramp is huge but it's set up exactly for this kind of jumping distance jumping and as we said this is simply for accuracy right here and there's robbie knievel warming up doing his first speed run while spanky spangler officially marks the first jump of the evening this is an accuracy jump this is a target jump where really excessive distance doesn't do you any good whatsoever they'll have a couple of opportunities to sail as long as they can go let's go now to gary davis on the pitch gary hi i'm here with eddie who made a spectacular jump i'm told now that you've missed the bark by seven foot seven inches but you feel good about that anyway don't i feel good yeah it was a good jump and uh this is just a warm-up let's see what i do on the bit next one i'm going to plan on going 250 plus and i believe he'll do it folks the jump 152 feet 5 inches for eddie kidd and now robbie knievel down the 30-foot takeoff tower under the 600-foot runway ravi now committed to the jump again very very close to that chip and again the one closest to it will receive 1 000 in casino magic chips it looks to me like one jumper jumped to one side of the ramp one on the other but it's the direct line of sight measurement here comes robbie down the acceleration tower checking his gas for the last time is petcock you got to make sure that gas is turned on when you're jumping wrapped ramp here he comes he's up the front end comes a little bit high but he tacks the rear brake you can see the front end shake a little bit of head shake there from the bottom and another replay front end comes up rear brake drags that transfers the spinning mass of the rear wheel into the frame bringing the front end back down here's the point of view the helmet cam look that's what robbie knievel is looking at trying to sight in that chip now he sees it slams the back wheel down and he too is in that vicinity of 150 354 feet his back tire it's the first tire to come down and johnny i think he is somewhere in that vicinity where eddie kid landed 150 253 feet i think that's great they're very very close i think they're very evenly matched in ability and now the pressure is really going to start mounting as they prepare for the distance competition next they're going to spread the ramp gap and we're going to go down to gary in the pits okay we're down here with robbie who just made his jump it's eight you missed it by a foot more than he did um how do you feel about that rod that's all right i'm all done gambling at casino magic anyway i'm glad he won that money he needs it okay so that was a warm-up jump for you you're still gonna go plenty far tonight aren't you okay we're ready to uh to do the cards when you guys are all right as you look at this crowd capacity crowd has found their way to base st louis mississippi for this competition tonight one that really the seed was planted some 14 15 months ago it was originally scheduled for march the 12th in panama city florida but a huge storm moved through the sunshine state and tonight is the night now the cut of the cards to see who will go first in the first okay distance jump any kid will draw first a king of spades the largest card will jump the two of spades it will be robbie knievel mounting the take-off tower first there's his crew chief bill rundle you got 10 minutes right now you heard gary davis informing robbie knievel he is on a 10-minute clock now he must begin his run down the takeoff tower 10 minutes from right now johnny did it take you the full time did you like to to think about it i mean they've had months to think about it the last 10 days here on site to think about it do you want to mount that ramp and go or will robbie take some time to think it over i think it's best to take your time and think about it because every jump has to count you have to be absolutely mentally prepared for each jump and if you fold at the last second because you hesitate or you're not sure of yourself and you don't fully commit you're in for some big trouble and i'm getting nervous right now because ravi could conceivably jump to the very bottom of this 158-foot landing ramp a lot of things happen in that space of time you can loop out you can endo you can do a flying w off that launch ramp it can get pretty bad out there and robbie is under tremendous pressure both of these jumpers are strong personalities they're going to do their very best to take the other man out this is a for real deal and when you're as high as an interstate overpass doing 90 miles an hour when you hit the ground it better be on two wheels their practice jumps yesterday and today farther than anyone else has ever jumped and they did it with such routine johnny that i think most of us began to think this has to be a walk in the park for both eddie and that man right there robbie knievel but when you talk to their crewmen about an hour ago bill rundell for robbie and certainly chas saunders for eddie kidd they both feel the nerves and they were saying a practice jump is just that it's a practice jump but when you're going for it all nobody's going to hold anything back now that's absolutely right it's like sparring and boxing with 16 ounce gloves and you put the six ounces on and go for the gold those punches hurt a little bit more and they punch a little bit harder and put a little bit more into it and they're a little harder to knock down robbie's bike a honda pretty much a stock cr 500 cc bike about 220 240 pounds about 100 pounds lighter than the bike his father rode into the history books 15 20 years ago evil rode a bike a harley that was up around 350 pounds that's right he wrote harleys american eagles triumphs bsas nortons he's ridden all the four-stroke street bike type you know big 750 650s and all that and uh being a four-stroke man that's the kind of bike that you know knievel road a lot of the riders back then wrote four strokes nowadays the primary jumpers are riding 500 cc single cylinder two-stroke water pumpers with 12 inches of travel front and rear where back in the old days he only had three or four inches [Music] 150 foot ramp separation is it a speed run yes as he pulls off i would not be surprised to see several speed runs two or three because uh under this pressure he's got to know what he's doing he's got to be confident and he's got to follow through and the first couple speed runs just get your confidence up get your speed where you think that you can land where you want to interesting to look at robbie knievel's uh rear tire it's a knobby it's not your street configuration why robbie believes uh as some jumpers believe that the navi is stiffer carcass higher profile and uh he's always had good luck with the knobbies and actually with these ramps they're painted with sand paint so it's really not a major traction problem so uh under different conditions the knobby would be ludicrous but here it's acceptable and that you know we've got a decent traction situation and we've got plenty of room to gain speed again the ramp separation 150 feet knievel's got it lined up and he'll pull up once more when you do your final speed run and you know that you could have gone on that one and you're ready to go for the next one your heart starts beating just as soon as you pass that launch ramp and it is heavy heavy pressure robbie knievel well into his 10-minute time limit approaching five minutes he has a total of 10 to make this first competitive jump and there he's talking things over with his crew there's a good look from the helmet cam what are they dialing in right now johnny what's going through robbie knievel's mind robbie's just telling his crew chief exactly how he stands if he's going to do one more speed run and then jump or if he's going to do the jump right now suspension such a critical element and jumps this high and jumps this far especially since the landing ramp is so long and flat it's a tremendously flat angle that means a really hard landing and this configuration is set up for distance jumping the launch ramp is a somewhat flatter angle than some other jumps but since we're going for distance they figure that by going high speed they'll cover a lot of ground in the air and uh with such a long landing ramp you're certain to land on it earlier this week robbie had suspension problems he told us he tightened it up stepping things up they revalved it added stiffer springs to both the front and back suspension because he was casing out or bottoming out on that landing ramp and today we didn't see any evidence of that whatsoever so apparently they have at least the suspension dialed into perfection well i believe they're going to push the limits and i think they're definitely going to bottom both guys are going to bottom hard i noticed that uh eddie kidd suspension is soft compared to robbie's but i can guarantee you they're both at the bottom very hard and it'll be difficult to even hang onto the bars when they land this kind of landing knocks the breath out of you it can break the bike i've broken handlebars doing this stuff before and with that flat landing wrap and going as far as he possibly can you just never know what's gonna happen [Music] he's got the race face on this time he's got it lined up he is committed first jump in the neighborhood of 200 feet and his longest practice jump johnny air time was about 170 feet earlier today this stuff drives me crazy i hope these guys get through tonight spanky spangler officially marking where the rear tire set down and it now appears as if it's back at about 185 to 190 feet here's the replay robbie comes up he keeps the front end down real nice this time flying somewhat level gets slightly crossed up making corrections and then he sets down another look the pov here's what robbie's looking at the only view you definitely don't want to have wham that thing just rebounds so hard you can see the front end come off the ground right there another look watch the front end rebound and bounce right off the ramp that tells you it's completely bottoming and when they start really airing it out you're going to see this get a lot worse 192 feet is the official measurement or robbie knievel and now it is up to eddie kidd to chase a figure of 192 feet johnny eddie leaned out of his motorhome less than an hour ago after a two-hour nap smiled and said i'm looking at a minimum of 250 on my first competitive jump can we believe it i don't believe at this time because i don't think he has to do that he's just going to get something of a lead he might jump 20 or 30 feet farther if he's aggressive and if he goes any farther than that i think he's uh over ramping on the jump he needs to play it somewhat conservative maybe go 220 or so but to just blow out with a 250 would be risking the entire contest at this point eddie kid now well into his 10-minute clock he's got 10 minutes to make his first competitive jump again the separation of the launch ramp and the landing ramp 150 feet both these riders wear outfits with no pads they're wearing full leathers eddie actually uses blue jeans with chaps and most jumpers do use the pads different types of plastic with pads underneath and i would certainly not want to go down these speeds without pads myself congratulations this is a rather unique outfit that eddie kidd wears designed by vivian westwood designs out of london england she has designer shops all over the world and he's quite proud of uh of vivian's designs he's a good-looking man and he dresses to the tee you've got to say that about eddie kid 16 eddie kid jumped 13 double decker buses but on his landing he slid into his dad broke his dad's collarbone also ran his bike into a couple of friends breaking their lugs eddie breaking their legs eddie had a concussion he didn't remember anything about it or sometimes he evidently landed on his back and went out and slid down the embankment on the other side of a ravine [Music] another speed run for eddie kidd now eddie made about five to ten more practice jumps than did robbie knievel this week they both had a maximum of 40. i think eddie took his 40th jump about 4 30 this afternoon that's right and i was watching both of these jumpers in practice uh eddie kidd is keeping the front end down a little better than robbie but you know when they start really gassing it the shape of the ramp interacting with the suspension of the motorcycle combined with rider technique could bring the front end down for robbie these things these dynamics occur when they get really intense eddie kidd the black knight from london england his crew chief chaz saunders is walking up the landing ramp and eddie is trying to dial him in he's showing him right there is where robbie knievel landed now chazz will back up that he continues to dial it in he's stopping at about 220 feet 150 from ramp to ramp and he stood at the 70-foot mark of the landing ramp so 150 and 70 would be 220. now chas is running down the runway to talk things over with his jumper you know earlier this week johnny eddie was having a casing problem he was bottoming out so they went to a larger front wheel well i'm not so sure that that'll solve the problem because the same diameter and radius is in effect so uh it may help somewhat but that might be more dependent on tire pressure and suspension settings but the farther they land down the ramp the steeper the angle they come in at and the higher their drop comes from so they're dropping farther landing at a more steep angle to the three degree landing one of the flattest landing ramps i've ever seen i believe eddie kidd is ready to go he has a total of 10 minutes to make his first distance jump robbie knievel on his first jump sailed 192 feet kid wants to fly by that with plenty to spare let's listen now to eddie kidd as he gets set to go [Music] kid is letting it rip nearing 90 miles an hour he's lined up he's committed oh i don't want to jump boy he landed sitting down with some limp legs looks like he's got about a 50-foot lead on robbie knievel right now maybe 30 feet but he landed sitting down and he got some major spinal compression on that one that could hurt him he's had a back injury recently which he's trying to get ready for and get prepared and training for he's been riding the bicycle 56 miles a day [Music] let's go for a replay pure eddie kid hits a ramp with total intensity in the attack position front end is down he's flying level but he gasses it in the air bringing the front end up boom hard landing in the neighborhood johnny of 210 feet look at the way kid brought those handlebars up at the point of takeoff oh that was a good spinal compression i hope that he's okay after that he certainly won't anyone let anyone know we're gonna go with a pov here here we go the front end is down now it's coming up wham officially the distance 214 a feet advantage now for any kid and that has certainly put the pressure now on robbie knievel now they're gonna they're going to stretch the ramp gap to 175 and and they're going to go again let's go down to gary in the bits i'm here with one happy eddie kid how do you feel kyle can i say i'm over the moon man i'm ready for the next one did you hurt your back on that yeah i heard yeah the suspension kicked a little bit and the front end i don't like to jump front end and it went off to the left or the right i can't remember now i was having such a good time up there but um it didn't go to plan on the next one hopefully we're gonna go a little bit further now you were real level in the air the whole time it wasn't until you got up across your uh down ramp that you finally raised yeah i think i just pulled it up a bit too much and uh i hurt my back a little bit but we'll be ready to go for the next one you did a great job thank you thank you well eddie said he was going to pull out all the stops on his first jump for distance and he did just that 214 feet for eddie kidd well we are along the banks of the gulf coast right here at casino magic and what a beautiful casino complex it is okay we're back down with our two heroes again robbie who is now 22 feet behind at this point in the game is going to draw first [Music] eddie kidd will jump first fours are top man the floors are top a capacity crowd here in bay saint louis mississippi on the gulf coast after one jump it is robbie knievel out at 192 feet and eddie kidd just as he said he would do he was going to pull it all out and go for the gold on his first jump in johnny he did just that he leads now by 22 feet as they approach a ramp gap of 175 feet a 22-foot margin the jump clock at 8 44. five minutes okay all right good girl okay yesterday we watched eddie jump johnny he was jumping off to the right he was landing about a foot two feet right of center because of a very gimpy left leg yes he hurt himself recently and that left leg he was favoring it so that caused the suspension to do a pogo stick effect sort of like gary wells did at caesar's palace and he moved off to the right but this landing ramp is 16 feet wide so it's plenty wide to catch him i'd like to see eddie pulling on the helmet got his fox boots on his oakley goggles and he gets set to go he has both these riders wearing boots but robbie knievel wears boots that are like street riding boots eddie kidd is riding with fox motocross boots they're a lot more supportive with plastic inside the leather very strong boots hard to get injured through those now you talk about the injury factor in the the chance of injury and certainly the the chance for death and a competition of this this is unquestionably one of the greatest thrill sports of all time and johnny we've talked about it a couple of times you've been airborne over 4 000 times likewise these two riders tonight and i think sometimes people forget these are human beings these are people aboard these very powerful pieces of machinery that's right eddie kid's got to have a lot of confidence let's talk about the confidence factor here he's in the lead right now he's got to come back and maintain that lead he's got a second guess what is robbie going to do when he comes out now if eddie comes out with a tremendous jump this time which it could very well be robbie has the most pressure he's ever had in his life [Music] we can expect a speed run here [Music] i've got a physics question for the viewers at home does it take longer to throw a ball up into the air or for it to come back down from the apogee that is the highest point the ball comes and catch it back in your hand what takes longer going up or coming back down or does it take the same amount of time discuss it among yourselves and i'll tell you after this jump what the answer is does the same pertain to a motorcycle rider as he takes off reaches apogee and comes down that's absolutely correct as long as you measure from the point where the launch ramp at the top of the lot trap horizontal line how long does it take to get from that point to the apogee and then how long does it take to get back down to that 10 foot point in this case what takes longer before he attempts the separation of 175 feet robbie knievel behind by 22 feet talked to ravi earlier today on his motorhome johnny i said why now why now do you put the knievel name on the line against another competitor it's never been done before he said phil my dad and i have been challenged all of our lives i finally felt there was a worthy challenger eddie kidd was the guy i wanted to go up against and eddie kid is a worthy challenger here like i say i think these guys are very evenly matched eddie kidd may have the edge in physical conditioning and he's a little bit lighter in weight and when you go to the mega distances i believe a lighter rider lands softer just like the difference between jumping a 250 and a 500 the 500s on a motocross track just land heavier feels like you're jumping on a refrigerator or something and a 250 is just a much lighter landing now when you're jumping rap to ramp it's nice to have that 500cc horsepower because when you're doing high speed you can change speed quickly on a 500 250 just takes longer when you're doing 100 to 150 feet a second off the latrine you need all the power you can get unlike robbie knievel eddie kidd uses a street rear tire his primary bike as we mentioned a cr500 honda provided by bay honda in panama city florida that's right he uses these metzlers which have an excellent rubber compound and tread pattern and uh although it's a somewhat low profile rear tire which may be the problem with his frame bottoming on the ramp i believe his suspension is basically a little soft for this task but it's really hard to find springs that are tough enough to handle this stuff nobody makes it let's listen again to eddie kidd [Music] he's got it lined up he's committed to going and a very hard landing but kid held on he'll be well short of his first jump that's an increased ramp gap it's 175 feet so they're going to add the distance down the landing ramp they're measuring from the beginning of the protective apron the protective apron is 50 feet long and that doesn't count that's just there to protect them in case of a disastrous watch this landing you'll see the tremendous head shake after he lands the swing arm flexes he bottoms and look at that bike go sideways boy when they start really stretching on the next jump eddie off the bike now as his crew backs it up eddie talking things over with his handlers as the measurement continues at around 1995 feet watch him get a little sideways here his front end is coming up dangerously high this can lead to disaster scenarios like the loop out they can get bucked over the bars in a flying w and uh that was a 202 foot jump officially now there is what eddie saw as he approached that landing ramp the front wheel beginning to loop out how he held on i'll never know boy that can rip the bars right out of your hands and that could injure your hand and he's using steel handlebars not not the aluminum bars he's using a handlebar that has been beefed up he's got a couple of welded brackets on to it to to keep those handlebars from torquing that's right he's got two crossbars welded in his mechanic made them himself modifying existing bars now eddie kidd apparently there is some discussion uh about something we are uncertain of at this point eddie is walking over talking to one of the officials michael fry well gary davis you're in the pits what's happening right now well i'm i'm told that um there's a discrepancy over the fact that robbie has added a little piece of uh wood at the bottom of his ramp as a transition before he gets up onto the approach ramp eddie has chosen not to use that there it seems to be discretion a little bit of a disagreement about whether or not either one of them can use it and he's coming over to us now eddie now there's that extension you spoke of it's about a 20-foot extension right there robbie wanted johnny why did robbie want that well this basic ramp shape is a wedge ramp when you add the pilot ramp at the base it breaks the 12 degree angle down between a 6 and then a 12 or roughly that kind of angle it makes it a softer impact when you hit the base because you can knock your breath out hitting the wedge ramp at the base at high speed so this just takes the curse off the ramp at the base now let's go to gary once more gary okay i've got eddie with me this time and uh first of all eddie that was an incredible jump again you pulled that one off that was a that way you were up there i just don't understand what's going wrong been training we've been going fine the bike has been flying beautifully through the air and i don't know if it's because i'm going closer now it's making that baby just fly right up sure it is you're winding the throttle a lot more you didn't practice now i noticed there's a little argument going on out there that's what that's all about well robbie's added a piece of the ramp to make it a lot smoother in the contract it says the ramp is set at a certain height and a certain length you can't start adding parts to the ram it's like going to get a fresh pair of balls when you're playing tennis you can't do that man um okay so they're they're deciding about what that's all about whether they're gonna allow him to use it again or not yeah they shouldn't be allowed to use it okay um in any event you uh you pull the grape jump off again that was 202 feet okay so that's a little bit shorter than your last jump a total accumulated distance now of 406 feet for eddie kidd i think robert knievel is going to air it out on this one and i'll elaborate on that last jump when you're going that fast the wind is hitting your chest so hard your chest is acting like a parachute and when it acts like a parachute it tries to go to the back and the bike tries to lead you turn into basically a dart no matter how you throw a dart the heavy end leads the pins [Music] when you've got all that pressure on your chest it causes the loop out and another factor the fear factor when you're pushing it to the ragged limit and if you've seen any jumps of any kind whether on motocross tracks or otherwise when you reach your personal limit you tend to freak out and loop out the front end comes up and in extreme cases you can land right on your back robbie knievel needs a jump of 225 feet to take a lead his first jump 192 feet eddie kids cumulative total after two jumps 416 feet to answer the question about what takes the most time for the ball to go up or to come down for the jumper to go up or come down to the same level they took off from it takes the same amount of [Music] gun time with the ramp separation at 175 feet again he pulls off to the left his second speed run what a tremendous event we talked at the outset johnny airtime that for years dating all the way back to the 60s when evil knievel began making huge headlines motorcycle jumping has been a spectacle it's been a one jump event where these riders have had months weeks days to think about targeting that one jump this puts all that aside that's right right here this is the birth of motorcycle jumping as a sport and i'm sure it's gonna have to go through its uh pains of trying to walk and then run we might have to change up certain parts of the format maybe ramp shapes will gradually evolve but i think that it's a step in the right direction and uh i thought that this would be a fantastic idea for a long time there just aren't very many people in the world willing to participate an evil weights you see the clock ticking away he has five minutes and 30 seconds now to commit to his second competitive jump the ramp space 175 feet if you just joined us eddie kidd has just jumped this space at 202 feet robbie needs 225 feet on this jump to take a lead you see him checking the fuel petcock and checking the choke every once in a while he'll be pulling a choke up and down to just keep the thing running clean he might be running a little bit lean or something and uh every engine runs a little bit differently it's got its quirks earlier this week he had problems with the pilot the main and the needle jets and it was really a problem they just got worked out late yesterday this humidity bill rundles that we couldn't quite figure it out [Applause] is he committed to going here he is probably airborne and this is a big one oh it's a huge jump [Applause] that was fabulous he kept the front end down you could see him dragging the rear brake in midair you could see the front end come down notching twice and that was unexpected he maintained fantastic control of the motorcycle going into this next jump it's going to be heavy drama [Music] that could well be the biggest jump of the night watch robbie knievel lift the fork and there he goes if you watch closely you'll see the front end notching down twice this angle you can't see it so well but then he plants the rear tire total trajectory there he goes this is basically what you want in the air level flight you want your actual axles actually to travel in the trajectory another look the pov shot here's what robbie saw and this is the attitude you want to maintain in the air johnny is knievel accelerating all the way through that launch ramp or does he back off just before the moment of takeoff i think he backs off rolls it off at the top of the launch room the nicest jump of the evening but you worked the bike the whole time in the air we tell you tap the brake and bring the front down a couple times you're only two feet behind you brought it all the way back to that i'm the best in the world i'm gonna nail his ass this time first or second i'm behind two feet two feet he's done 23. 223. good job here's where we went he is one foot behind the longest jump of the night 223 feet here's where it gets heavy you can believe he'll challenge him knievel and three feet to take a lead he has to go longer than any kid's jump of 202 feet on the 175 note separation there's no card cut if it's if we go there's no card cut it's a it's a challenge there is no card cut it doesn't change down to the challenge at this point it's up to you whether you challenge to go on or not at this point he's got you by a foot i definitely challenge any kid in my home of america are you kidding that means you're the next person to jump to make the mark and we'll see if he has to beat it or not all right how much time do i get he gets 10 minutes there is the situation you would ever believe it eddie kidd after two jumps 416 feet robbie knievel 415 feet and robbie knievel has just issued the challenge he is going to go he will need a jump of 203 feet minimum beautiful 202 feet that eddie kid jumped on the 175 foot space separation plus the one foot he's behind if your vcr is not on now you better get it on because this next jump is going to be the biggest jump either one of them has ever attempted there is no telling what's going to happen here they are totally close they could go to the far end of the landing ramp and we could see conceivably a 250 260 foot jump if they totally air it out now the question that i'm sure eddie kidd once answered is are they going to take away that initial little ramp that robbie knievel wants so desperately johnny if you were jumping against knievel would you demand that being taken away i would personally run a different shape of launch ramp uh i don't use the wedge or the by angle ramp i have a totally different shape and i would probably demand having my own shape now there's the situation just over two feet and robbie knievel takes the lead and then he would force eddie kidd to try and catch him the official distance 204 feet that is knievel's mark here minimum 204. i'll tell you what when you're jumping off in competition if i was participating in something like this i would have to get paid a lot of money i hope these guys are getting paid a lot of money anybody doing this they're risking the rest of their career on a jump off competition one-time shot to do it all take the cash and run and you better run away instead of being carried away on a stretcher robbie knievel's first jump 192 feet his second outing the biggest of the night the biggest in his life 223 feet back in 1989 when robbie cleared the fountains of caesar's palace that jump was only 150 feet over the fountains that tells you how huge this jump was a moment ago really they're 70 feet farther than that right now and they could conceivably go 100 or more farther than caesar's fountain [Music] robbie with a speed run here [Music] is take off speed with this ramp separation of 175 feet johnny airtime nearing 100 miles an hour that's right and i've got another physics question in a vacuum not considering the ambient air temperature density altitude humidity and all that does a rider slow down in the air or does he speed up or does he stay the same throughout his trajectory in midair if you pay attention in math and physics class you'll know the answer after this jump i'll give you the answer to that physics question al robbie knievel the spirit of america is writing on that honda cr 500 right there he told me earlier today that to beat that man eddie kidd the black knight from england he would call upon everything he has and one of the things he treasures most he said is his belief in his spirit he said earlier to me today tell my dad who's watching in portland oregon that i'm carrying the name knievel on my shoulders and dad i'm gonna carry it proudly he's got it lined up he's committed to going and another huge jump in the vicinity of 210 to 225 feet i believe johnny i expected more i expected knievel to absolutely air it out to 250. but without a speedometer he doesn't know how fast he's going it's seated the pants and he has to just go for what he knows now with eddie kidd having the chance to come back we will see what he's got he needed 204 feet to force eddie kidd to come back and beat him [Applause] i don't know if he got 204 they're measuring it awfully close there he goes he keeps the front end down fairly well but it's coming up up up and he lands safely that kind of landing can pull your arms right out of the sockets it's very hard landing he needs 204 to force eddie kidd to mount the takeoff tower once more eddie kidd is watching with tremendous anticipation 210 feet he has done it [Applause] with a cumulative total of now of 626 feet tonight on three jumps robbie kidd has forced robbie knievel has forced eddie kidd into a final jump i think robbie knievel has represented america in a favorable way here he's done his very best emotions are high here i can overhear the crew talking right now and eddie kidd knows he's got to muster everything he's got to be robbie knievel he seems confident let's take a look at that last jump there's robbie lofting off the launch ramp the front end's coming up somewhat but he's in good control still a little bit crossed up correcting you can see his elbows come down on landing front end rebounds pov robbie goes off the launch ramp you don't want to go short on this kind of jump boom one more look at robbie knievel's final jump of the night and this is the one that will force the black knight back to the takeoff tower and there he goes kid landing partner knievel landing at an exact 210 feet and he knew he nailed it so now it is all up to the 31 year old daredevil from london england he needs 210 feet to win it all to answer the question on do you slow down or speed up in midair the answer is on the way up you're slowing down and on the way down you're speeding back up and when you reach the height that you started at you're doing the same speed you took off at and when you're landing in a lower spot like on a landing ramp you're actually landing a little faster than you took off if you're out there ready to mount that ramp do you want to know exactly what you need to win the competition or would you rather not know i would rather know exactly information and education is key in the sport a lack of information could kill you and right here a lack of information could lose the competition for you if your information is good and is based on good sound logic and good numbers that you can absolutely rely on with your life eddie kids first jumped 214 feet he came back to go 202 and now he finds himself 210 feet from the winner's circle [Music] [Applause] [Music] again pulls off for a second speed run l eddie told us yesterday he repeated it again this evening johnny that he was going to go over 200 feet on all his jumps tonight and so far he has lived up to that claim he's threatened to do a 250 foot jump and as of right now he has yet to uh to make that happen but here is his chance and if he plays it safe which is playing it unsafe if he goes to the 250 mark that'll be good enough uh padding to make sure that his judgment wasn't off too far keep in mind he came into this competition with a gimpy left knee on that first jump of 214 feet johnny he suffered that spinal compression that he told gary davis really hurt him on that landing that's right there's no telling how bad it's hurting him now but he has to blow that pain off when you're doing stunts like this sometimes you just gotta go right through the pain and go for the goal unquestionably the biggest jump of eddie kidd's jumping career awaits him he knows he needs 210 feet to take out bobby good evil the separation is 175 feet kid is committed he's off the lunch and he ramp on he held on i can't believe he saved that one he almost looped he landed with the rear brake on all ravi can do now is wait and i think he knows the answer he is standing just to the left of us and with a look of dejection i think eddie's hurt i think he got that spinal compression we were talking about he's off the bike and on his knees [Music] gary davis is down there gary what does it look like he's down here he's he hasn't given us an answer exactly hurts him yet it's his back he's mostly knocked the air out of himself right now he's just trying to get his win back [Music] now while the authorities look over eddie kid they are measuring the official distance as we had said he was going to let the air out on that one and indeed he did he needed 210 feet to win it here's the replay eddie kid in the air you can see the front end coming up tremendously look how those forks are almost level parallel with the ramp that spine just got totally compressed his seat is only about two inches thick so that gives him a lot of compression when he bottoms out into the frame of the motorcycle under that seat hard on the rear brake johnny still couldn't bring him out of that looping position here's the pov shot best shot in the house you'll look right into the night here as that front handlebar comes up eddie somehow held on he's up eddie's up he's all right and just looking [Music] 215 feet he needed 210. it is the black knight by a mere five feet that's absolutely right i could not believe this competition was so close i would never have predicted that [Music] kids coming out robbie knievel gave it everything he had neither the name knievel nor eddie kidd should hang their head in this competition it was a tremendous event officially eddie kidd wins it by six feet and look at those toes gary davis you're standing right alongside eddie kidd how's he feeling gary okay we're with the new world champion eddie kidd right here eddie tell us about the injury you got to uh i thought i was coming off man but i wasn't gonna let i've told my father i was gonna take that belt back to england that's what i've done yes this is for you dad a very happy man he really saved at that time i mean man i just don't know what's going on everybody in the pit was sure you'd lose it man i just hang on there and uh somebody up there looked after me good job congratulations i'm in a bit of pain i'm gonna suffer tomorrow and you know gary i'd be curious to know whether eddie kidd is looking at perhaps rematching this thing in a place like wembley stadium in london england that would be a huge event to someday think that these two might meet again i think they deserve a rematch and i think it's nice that he thanked his father you know i've got my father to thank he was nice enough to buy me my first four motorcycles and i love him for that it's changed my entire life well certainly a very disappointed robbie kid robbie knievel but he has to love what he accomplished tonight a jump of 192 feet johnny two jumps over 200 feet by far the farthest either of these jumpers have ever flown before i think it was good for them they had to break through that break that 200 foot barrier and they did it with uh with good style and they can be proud of themselves let's go down now once more to gary davis now standing by with robby knievel gary okay we've got robbie who did set the longest single jump he's got the world distance record at 223 feet robbie how do you feel about tonight's deal eddie kid deserve that man i represent all of america i know you're watching i did my best i hold the longest distance record hopefully i'll get invited to his country and they'll treat me like we treated him here we are the world man me and eddie kid i want to say hi to my little girl kristen who's watching and hi to brittany brittany and rickster sorry i didn't win but i got the long distance record man hi mom great grandma i won't be home with the belt until i get back from scotland and dad i'll be in good grace with the scots [Laughter] nice job robbie elle hartley sounds like a disappointed loser does he johnny no he did a good job and he can certainly be proud his entire family evil knievel everyone in his family and in butte montana can certainly be proud of his performance and he will be back well it was a competition the likes of which has never been seen before anywhere in the united states anywhere around the world as we said early on in our telecast motorcycle jumping for the most part johnny air time has always been a one jump spectacle tonight we got to see two of the finest the world has to offer and the winning jump belongs to the black knight from london england here he goes eddie kidd airs it out almost loops out 215 feet later he gets the breath knocked out of him hurts his back and let's hope he heals up quickly from that this is a rough sport there's a heavy price to pay and careers are limited a huge crowd on hand here tonight in base st louis mississippi casino magic they hosted an event that the practices began three four five six days ago and they have everything to be proud of as they pulled off a spectacular sporting event here tonight along the gulf coast eddie kidd 31 year old from london england at least for the time being upends the name knievel in motorcycle jumping i think this will do a lot for both of their careers and i hope that they have the best of luck both of them eddie kidd certainly deserved his shot he's been after it since he was 16 years old and he fulfilled his promise that he made today to be the champion johnny we talked about it throughout the week motorcycle jumping has for a long time had a black eye as much as evil knievel did for the sport and nobody can deny evil knievel was and to a certain extent still is a lot to this sport of motorcycle jumping but for as much as he did there is still a part of america corporate america that tends to shy away from this sport perhaps tonight what eddie kid and robbie knievel did will give this sport of motorcycle jumping the notoriety and the authenticity that perhaps it now deserves in the 90s that's right now that we've got official sanctioning by the world professional motorcycle jumping association there's eddie kidd walking injured now that we've got that i think that we can possibly look forward to factory sponsorship other sponsorship by hop-up shops that are involved in motocross and other sports and the big sponsors soft drinks etc it opens the door and i think that this is the biggest motorcycle event that you can think of because it's on pay-per-view television and i've got to thank each and every one of you for tuning in because you're creating the sport it's the viewers that are creating the sport it's the fans and you can see that they've loved every minute of it ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen here on the landing ramp we have our winner tonight but believe me there was no loser here tonight this was one of the most exciting things in the history of motorcycle jumping a matter of a few feet and hopefully we'll see once again these same two except the challenge of the daredevil duel how about a round of applause first of all for robbie knievel ladies and gentlemen [Music] robert knievel and here with me on the platform to present this championship belt ladies and gentlemen is of course our miss daredevil duel sherry let's say cher and along with her of course the president of the world professional motorcycle jumping association mr michael fry let me turn the microphone over to michael fry at this time at this time it's my pleasure to introduce the new world champion mr eddie kidd [Applause] history is made here tonight ladies and gentlemen at casino magic in bay st louis mississippi once again a round of applause for these two great daredevils our winner eddie kidd the black knight of london england [Applause] and also being presented at this time a check for 1 000 casino magic chips 1 000 in casino magic chips that was for the target jump the first jump of the evening he won both events here tonight once again eddie kidd ladies and gentlemen a very happy eddie kid his three competitive jumps 214 feet 202 feet and his final challenge jump that won it all 215 feet as i said at the outset of our telecast welcome to the edge and johnny airtime it does not get any more thrilling than what we saw tonight i thank god that we did not see a catastrophe tonight because i was getting very nervous you just don't know what to expect and and this was no game here these guys were playing for keeps and uh i look forward to talking with both these gentlemen later and seeing just how they're doing

Channel: My Collection

Views: 255,748

Keywords: Eddie Kidd, Evel Knievel, Robbie Knievel, Motorcycle Jumping Contest, Stuntman, Daredevil, Motorcycle Jump, Harley Davidson, Bikers, Kawasaki Motorfcycle, UK Hero, American Icon, 1970's

Id: NSUn922fZLc

Length: 70min 33sec (4233 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020