LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — When seven-time X Games gold medalist Colby Raha attempts to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace on Sunday, he’ll become the latest in a line of daredevils to use Las Vegas as the backdrop for their jaw-dropping motorcycle stunts.
Evel Knievel’s 1967 crash launched Las Vegas stunt legacy
On New Year’s Eve of 1967, legendary daredevil Evel Knievel became the first to attempt an epic motorcycle stunt along the Las Vegas Strip. It ended badly. Knievel failed to clear the fountains at Caesars. Instead, he crashed into the ramp, breaking a total of 40 bones and spending 29 days in a coma.
“He committed and he went. And, you know, sometimes he paid the price,” said Rich Hopkins, founder of Thrillseekers Unlimited.
Robbie Knievel returned to complete his father’s jump
The Knievels were not done with Vegas. Twenty-two years later, Evel’s son Robbie returned to recreate the iconic jump, traveling 19 feet farther than his father intended.
Robbie would next leap 30 limos at the Tropicana, then jump 130 feet between the Jockey Club’s 13-story towers. In 2008, he set his sights on jumping the Mirage volcano while another daredevil staged a different stunt just up the street.
Robbie Maddison’s Arc de Triomphe jump
Australian rider Robbie “Maddo” Maddison jumped 96 feet to the top of the Arc de Triomphe at Paris Las Vegas. He then rode off the arc, dropping 80 feet onto a ramp below.
Travis Pastrana recreated three Knievel jumps in one night
It would be 10 years before the Strip would see another motorcycle stunt, but it would be big and it would invoke an “Evel” spirit.
In July of 2018, Travis Pastrana recreated three of Knievel’s most iconic leaps within three hours. First he jumped the Caesars fountain. Then he leaped 143 feet and cleared 52 cars before jumping 16 Greyhound buses and clearing 192 feet.
Pastrana did it riding a motorcycle designed to emulate the Harley Davidson Knievel rode back in 1967.
Veteran stunt rider Rich Hopkins said it makes a big difference.
“Those bikes weighed, you know, hundreds of pounds more than the new lightweight motocross bikes. They’re geared differently,” Hopkins said. “I mean, you just had to just twist the throttle and just pin it and go and pray.”
Knievel continues to inspire decades after his death
Hopkins founded Las Vegas’s oldest stunt company more than three decades ago. He said Evel Knievel inspired him.
“I watched them all, man. I was planted right in front of the TV. I don’t care if it was, like, 19 inches or black and white. I was right there, man. I couldn’t wait,” Hopkins said.
Knievel continues to inspire decades after his death.
“He’s still so iconic. Like, he was the first to do everything, pretty much,” Hopkins said.
Evel Knievel’s place in Las Vegas history will be cemented next month when a museum bearing his name opens in the Arts District.
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