Weather postpones young Knievel’s Grand Canyon stunt

Michelle Rushlo

Thursday, April 29, 1999 | 7:11 a.m.

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. - Evel Knievel always wanted to jump the Grand Canyon on a motorcycle, but the National Park Service wouldn't hear of it. On Thursday, Mother Nature scuttled his son's bid to accomplish the feat on an Indian reservation.

Robbie Knievel decided at the last minute that weather conditions were too unsafe to make the leap across a 200-foot-plus bend. Temperatures were in the 30s, wind gusted to 22 mph and snow fell earlier in the day.

"There's a lot of little kids out there," Knievel said of the 350 people gathered to watch the event on the Hualapai reservation west of Grand Canyon National Park. "I don't have a death wish."

The jump was to be televised live on Fox for East Coast viewers and tape-delayed for the rest of the country. It was rescheduled for May 20.

Ideally, Knievel wanted 75-degree weather for the jump at a speed of at least 100 mph. But cold, wet weather in recent days limited the daredevil's practice time and froze his takeoff ramps.

Knievel sought to break his world record of 223 feet. Failure to clear the canyon would have sent Knievel plunging as much as 2,500 feet.

Knievel, 36, planned to make the jump with an ordinary 500cc motorcyle and refused to wear a parachute, saying it would create too much drag.

"This is the biggest hole I've ever jumped," Knievel said in the days leading up to the jump. "I know it's like 'What the hell have I gotten myself into?' If there's too much wind, I'm screwed."

Rick Konop of Green Bay, Wis., flew into Las Vegas and then rode a motorcycle to the canyon just to watch the jump.

"As a Knievel fan, I gotta go. It's just part of being a fan," he said.

Konop's friend, Paul Hirst of Green Bay, said the event was "like the Super Bowl of motorcycles."

Both said they would return next month for Knievel's next attempt.

Crews spent weeks building ramps and removing as many obstacles as they could. Cactuses, shrubs, snakes and other wildlife were moved for the jump but will have to be returned as part of an agreement with the Hualapais.

Knievel gained notoriety in April 1989 when he jumped the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, a stunt that nearly killed his father 21 years earlier.

Evel Knievel, who recently underwent a liver transplant, had talked about jumping the Grand Canyon but never got National Park Service officials to agree.

Evel tried to sail across the Snake River Canyon in Idaho using a rocket in 1974, but his parachute deployed too early and he failed to make the 1,800-foot jump. He suffered only scrapes and bruises but had to be fished off the craggy, rock bottom by a helicopter.