AE folks will love EK various bike pictures

But then I think he moved onto a Harley which is basically a tractor
Saw him interviewed and he reckoned the Harley didn’t fly straight like a Triumph - he put it down to the clutch/ primary being very heavy & onesided. One of his classic lines was “ I knew I couldn’t make the jump but you can’t tell 20,000 people to just go home..”
That’s exactly what I’d have told them!!
 
the thugs Eagle, photographed, could be 1053. It was under resto 5 years ago for the thugs museum in thugland, the sidecar he had was 1242, he also had 1243. Hzal kendals was 1222 and was about to start resto in 2010. The sidecar lugs on Hals bike had been ground off, by then. does anyone have any of the above?
CLEM
 
But then I think he moved onto a Harley which is basically a tractor
Pretty certain the H-D XR750s he used were quite a bit lighter! With 80hp on tap, certainly a lot quicker than the GT/AE. Top racing examples of the early iron-engined models nudged close to 100hp.


If you call the Harley a tractor, then you'd need to classify the GT/AE as a steam traction engine...

piet
 
Modern jumpers using acceleration and braking to control their bike's path through the air. Met one at a show who referred to Evel as a "dead sailor".
 
Modern jumpers using acceleration and braking to control their bike's path through the air. Met one at a show who referred to Evel as a "dead sailor".
Don’t know when blip & brake came in, probably with the Supercross guys in the states tiding two strokes.
Wing and a prayer, dressed like Elvis on an unsuitable bike is something else. Modern bike jumpers use computer designed ramp / speed set ups, practice with air bags with huge runoff areas .Bob & his mates would build a ramp that looked about right, hit it around about the right speed and the runoff was nearly always to short -the Cow Palace jump - runoff between two pillars springs to mind! Just how many successful jumps he did is incredible.
 
My first time on a full-on MX track was at the old Jillaby Park, north of Sydney, on a Yamaha XT 500 with its pathetic 100mm rear suspension travel. After a few laps to learn the track, I hit the big jump on the main straight at around 80kph in 4th gear and landed flat, not rear-wheel-first. I hit so hard it felt like my hips were driven into my knees. I rode straight off and had a nice long lie down in pain. How those professionals jumped those distances and speeds with buggar all suspension travel and on 200kg bikes was crazy, and every second time resulted in long Hospital stays. Just nuts. Around the time I had that, XT Supercross was the next big thing, so many ended up with really bad injuries; it took lots of training to even try a typical Supercross track, skills and bravery way beyond me.
 
My first time on a full-on MX track was at the old Jillaby Park, north of Sydney, on a Yamaha XT 500 with its pathetic 100mm rear suspension travel. After a few laps to learn the track, I hit the big jump on the main straight at around 80kph in 4th gear and landed flat, not rear-wheel-first. I hit so hard it felt like my hips were driven into my knees. I rode straight off and had a nice long lie down in pain. How those professionals jumped those distances and speeds with buggar all suspension travel and on 200kg bikes was crazy, and every second time resulted in long Hospital stays. Just nuts. Around the time I had that, XT Supercross was the next big thing, so many ended up with really bad injuries; it took lots of training to even try a typical Supercross track, skills and bravery way beyond me.

This is me and my mates out the other week , I’m the old tosser on the ‘73 MX 360 and the other two are on modern KTMs.
Think this pic gives you an idea of how radically different “ state of the art” is from the ‘70’s to now, I look like a little kid on mine!
This was at a modern track and nearly killed me- my thighs were hurting a week later and I had to pretend to be fine so the wife didn’t say “ I told you so!” 😂😂
 

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The young man we ran into explained that when learning a new trick, they'll drop acid -for the neuroplasticity? or just for fun!- and do the jump into a foam pit dozens of times; and that crashes in their world are nearly non-existent.
 
The young man we ran into explained that when learning a new trick, they'll drop acid -for the neuroplasticity? or just for fun!- and do the jump into a foam pit dozens of times; and that crashes in their world are nearly non-existent.
"Neuroplasticity," is not why I took it. I did climb a ten-foot fence to get into a Band of Light concert, so perhaps some neuroplasticity was involved. We had tickets for the concert, so it didn't help my decision-making process.
 
Here’s one I’d not seen before, just before Caesar’s Palace jump, having a quick razz around in the traffic. Every shot of EK wheeling he never covers the clutch, all throttle control- says a lot about the guys talent.
 

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Pretty certain the H-D XR750s he used were quite a bit lighter! With 80hp on tap, certainly a lot quicker than the GT/AE. Top racing examples of the early iron-engined models nudged close to 100hp.


If you call the Harley a tractor, then you'd need to classify the GT/AE as a steam traction engine...

piet
 

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Pretty certain the H-D XR750s he used were quite a bit lighter! With 80hp on tap, certainly a lot quicker than the GT/AE. Top racing examples of the early iron-engined models nudged close to 100hp.


If you call the Harley a tractor, then you'd need to classify the GT/AE as a steam traction engine...

piet
Iron head XR's were in the 82-83hp range at the rear wheel. The alloy XR's in the 90hp range and towards the end of the XR era in the 2000's there were quite a few that were in the 100hp range. A good friend of mine was there right from the beginning and has built and dyno'd many xr's. He used to road race his back in the 80's and 90's.

A flat track version of the XR750 weighed in at just under 300lbs.

Here's his XR750 (Serial#69 and former Selachii Carb test mule) along with a street tracker he built in the '90's with some exceptionally rare Sputhe heads...... I'll have to ask him the displacement but it was over 1000cc's

There are lots of XR750's in southern Ontario if you know where to look ;)
 

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