Dave Skooter Farm reports...
In this modern age, there seems to be an insatiable quest to revisit the good old days. The ‘rebooting’ of classic movies, old bands you thought you would never, ever get to see, reforming and long-discontinued chocolate bars once again available in the newsagents. However, maybe some things should be left in the nostalgic mind’s eye.
In this modern age, there seems to be an insatiable quest to revisit the good old days. The ‘rebooting’ of classic movies, old bands you thought you would never, ever get to see, reforming and long-discontinued chocolate bars once again available in the newsagents. However, maybe some things should be left in the nostalgic mind’s eye.
On September 17th 2016, as tribute to his childhood idol Evel Knievel, Hollywood stuntman Eddie Bruan will attempt to recreate Evel’s 1974 career highpoint (pun intended) and jump the Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho. Regular readers of Sideblog won’t need me to point out how Knievel’s effort played out.
Bruan will be piloting an exact replica of EK’s ‘X-2 Sky-Cycle’ built to vintage blue-prints belonging to the builder of the original, NASA rocket scientist Bob Truax. The new version of the Sky-Cycle has been co-built by the late Bob Truax’s son, Scott. The craft has been christened ‘Evel Spirit’
Just like Evel’s ‘bike’, it’s steam-powered.
Steam is superheated to precise temperature and pressure and when released, produces 6,000 pounds of thrust and 10,000 Horsepower! Expected maximum speed is in excess of 400 mph in 3.0 seconds with a calculated altitude of 3,000 feet.
In keeping with exact specifications of Evel's X2 Sky-cycle, all of that temperature and pressure is being held in the rocket by THE LID OF A DOG-FOOD CAN!
'Evel used it—so we're using it! That's right, we actually cut off the tops of dog food cans (just like Evel did) and place the lid inside the rocket engine to keep all the pressure at bay until we are ready to release it!'
For some reason, live spectators at the launch site have been limited to 500 people. We could speculate that it may have something to do with Evel (above) leaving behind a trail of unpaid bills with vendors and the local services his team used during their stay 42 years ago. A city councillor in Twin Falls said the town was wiser about what to expect from a daredevil attempting to jump their canyon.
Happy landings to the ‘Evel Spirit’ team.
Dave Skooter Farm
(Above) This post's author, Dave Skooter Farm, with the original Sky-Cycle in 1999. It prompted me to ask, 'Where was the photo of you taken? And why do you look like you’ve just taken one to the nuts?'
Dave replied, 'Daytona Bike week 1999, Met Evel that day too. Can’t explain why I’m in that position….soz'
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7 comments:
It will surely all end in tears (again).
Could he not of thought of better ways to spend loads of money?
Like buying an XR750 and jumping it over some buses.
Lovely paint job though.
Coo! Doesn't he look young!
O'ER, are you sure?
I know exactly why Dave is in that position.
Any fellow who gets over excited cannot help but rub his thighs. Ask Vic Reeves.
Just imagine - 1.he's in the USA, 2.at Daytona to watch some racing, 3.he's scored a Harley Team jacket and 4.he's just met every boys hero Evel Kneivel & is standing in front of a steam sky rocket.
Poor bloke is in a state nearing ecstasy, no wonder his trousers are getting a vigorous smoothing.
Outrageous
Hey, what about the photo credits :)
In future campfire retellings of your tale, you should say that the man himself back knuckled you to the nuts for getting too close to the skycycle...
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