Daredevil Knievel clears Grand Canyon on motorcycle

Michelle Rushlo

Friday, May 21, 1999 | 9:06 a.m.

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. - Motorcycle daredevil Robbie Knievel successfully cleared a sliver of the Grand Canyon on Thursday, breaking his world record of 223 feet with room to spare.

Fireworks erupted and a crowd of about 500 cheered as Knievel soared 55 feet into the air over the 200-foot-wide gorge at 90 mph on an ordinary 500cc motorcycle.

Officials said Knievel traveled 228 feet, eclipsing the record he set in Panama City, Fla., in the early 1990s.

If he failed, Knievel risked plunging 2,500 feet to the canyon floor on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, west of Grand Canyon National Park.

Knievel tumbled off the bike after clearing the landing ramp, coming to rest in a cloud of dust in hay bales set up to cushion a fall.

"I'm wiped out in the head a little," Knievel said.

He was examined by paramedics, who applied a neck brace and placed him on a gurney. He was flown by helicopter to University Medical Center in Las Vegas for an examination.

Whether he was injured was unclear. The hospital told Knievel's support group that he was alert and talking while undergoing X-rays and other tests, and a spokesman who said later that Knievel had been released was unable to say whether Knievel sustained an actual injury.

The jump was televised live by Fox on the East Coast for tape-delay airing later Thursday night in the rest of the country.

Knievel, 37, the son of daredevil Evel Knievel, attempted the same jump on April 29 but it was canceled at the last minute because of wind and cold weather. Conditions were much better this time, with clear skies, lighter wind and warm temperatures.

Knievel would not say how much Fox paid him.

"You're talking about one of the seven wonders of the world, and I want to do it," Knievel, the son of Evel Knievel, said earlier this week.

"Everyone has a calling, has to make a living. I'm not trying to kill myself. I don't have a death wish," he said. "If you make the jumps and stay alive, it's all worth it."

Knievel refused to wear a parachute, saying it would weigh him down and push him off balance.

A parachute thwarted Evel Knievel's attempt to cross the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in 1974. It deployed too early as he tried to make the 1,800-foot jump in a rocket. The elder Knievel was fished off the bottom of the canyon by helicopter but suffered only minor injuries.

His son achieved notoriety in April 1989 by jumping the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, a stunt that nearly killed Evel Knievel 21 years earlier.

Robbie Knievel said his father, who has been ailing since a recent liver transplant, had wanted to jump the Grand Canyon but never got the chance.