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Robbie Knievel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Edward "Kaptain" Knievel (born May 7, 1962 in Butte, Montana) is the third of four children of famous stuntman Evel Knievel and his first wife Linda.
He began jumping his bicycle at age 4 and rode motorcycles at age 7. At age 8 he performed his first show with his father at Madison Square Garden. At age 12 he was on tour with his father where he would perform in the pre-jump shows. He wanted to lengthen his jumps, but his father disapproved. Robbie then went solo after his dad's disapproval.
Robbie Knievel's jumping career is markedly different from his father's, in that he uses high-performance bikes that have been designed for jumping. Evel Knievel used Harley-Davidson motorcycles which were significantly less agile and which were really intended for the road. Also, great care goes into the planning and execution of each of Robbie's jumps, and it is quite evident that he and his team do not "wing it" as was sometimes evident in Evel's jumps.
He has completed over 250 jumps, setting 20 world records. These include the Caesars Palace Fountain jump and Grand Canyon jump. This Grand Canyon jump was partially based on his father's radical and ill-fated attempt at jumping the Snake River Canyon in 1974 on a rocket "motorcycle" which was really much more rocket than motorcycle. In Robbie's jump he actually used a motorcycle and he actually jumped the Grand Canyon. While Robbie's jump was harrowing at a distance of 228 feet and a canyon depth of 2500 feet, it was quite a bit less haphazard and ambitious than his father's attempt in 1974 of jumping almost a mile over a canyon in a makeshift rocket.
He is considering a future attempt at jumping the Snake River Canyon on the Snake River near Twin Falls, Idaho, a feat his father had failed at in 1974.
During the summer of 2005, he had his own TV show on A&E called Knievel's Wild Ride. In 2006, he opened a new business called Knievel Custom Cycles, based in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. In late March 2006, Robbie Knievel jumped from one barge to another in Jacksonville, FL and in late July 2006, he made a tribute jump to his father Evel Knievel at Evel Knievel Days in Butte, Montana.