50 Years Ago: Evel Knievel Jumped the Snake River Canyon - Sort Of

Fifty years ago Evel Knievel soared into the skies over the Snake River Canyon on his Skycycle X-2 Rocket. As with many of his jumps it was a remarkable spectacle and ended with Knievel narrowly escaping death.

Evel Knievel was a fan of Triumphs

In traditional Knievel fashion his initial plan was to jump the Grand Canyon - he came up with this idea while recovering from his famous jump/crash at Caesar's Palace - but he couldn't get permission, so he chose the Snake River Canyon in Idaho. This location had Knievel facing a leap of nearly a quarter-mile and a depth of more than 500 feet to the river along the canyon floor.

Triumph Motorcycles wanted to mark this notable anniversary by creating a couple of custom painted motorcycles for the celebration and parade at Twin Falls, Idaho.

Kelly Knievel

Kelly Knievel, Evel's son, led the motorcycle parade on a custom painted Bonneville T120, which was inspired by Evel's Bonneville T120-TT named 'Color Me Lucky' which he used for his 141-foot jump at Caesar's Palace. Stuntman Robbie "Maddo" Maddison rode a custom Triumph Rocket 3 in tribute to the Skycycle X-2 Rocket. Six-time X Games gold medalist Colby Raha rode a Triumph Speed 400 in the parade.

Kelly Knievel said he loved the customized paint jobs.

"This bike is painted up just like ‘Color me Lucky’ the Triumph he used, it looks great! He always had a soft spot for his T120, said it flew ‘straight as a bullet’."

Another T120 named the Skycycle, was "jet powered" and fitted with wings to give it that Knievel flair, and it was used by Evel to promote his canyon jump.

Aeronautical engineer Doug Malewicki was hired to design and build an actual rocket-powered motorcycle for the jump. The Skycycle X-1 was based on a hugely modified motorcycle and featured a steam engine created by former NASA engineer Robert Truax. A test flight saw the Skycycle X-1 crash into the river, so it was back to the drawing board. The wheels were removed from the X-1 and the X-2 was born which would take off and fly like a rocket and not a bike.

Courtney "Coco" Mault https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

On the fateful day Evel launched the Skycycle X-2, but during take off the drogue chute deployed way too early and the 'rocket bike' only made it part way across the canyon. The Skycycle X-2, dangling under its main parachute, and with Evel strapped inside, was pushed by the winds back toward the launch point. It slowly drifted down into the canyon and narrowly missed landing in the river itself which quite likely would have seen Knievel drown in the rocket. You can watch the whole spectacle below.

It wasn't a successful feat, but it's still remembered 50 years later, so for the showman that Evel Knievel was, I think that can be counted as success.