Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Today in motorcycle history, May 6, 1972

  

  

 




  Evel Knievel's SkyCycle X-1 is shown to the press and the public for the first time.







  Evel Knievel meets Doug Malewicki, the designer and engineer of Evel's Steam Rocket powered SkyCycle X-1 canyon-jumping motorcycle, Robert "Bob" Truax, the inventor and patent holder of the Steam Rocket engine and Facundo Campoy, one of Bob's partners for the machine's unveiling at the Twin Falls, Idaho, Snake River Canyon jump site. The press go insane.


  Doug Malewicki built a working X-1 Skycycle model rocket and a shallow angled launch ramp to be flown for all to see at Arizona's Bee-Line Dragway, the same night Evel was there jumping 12 cars and 3 vans. The model took off, coasted in a ballistic arc and successfully deployed its parachute.


  He got the job to design the real canyon jumper.



  

  Bee Line Dragway met it’s untimely fate in the early 1980’s due to a dispute between the landowners and the track management.











  Today in motorcycle history proudly supports the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD). www.nabd.org.uk