Triumph celebrates 50th anniversary of Evel Knievel’s rocket jump
Fifty years ago, daredevil Evel Knievel performed his legendary rocket jump stunt at Twin Falls, Idaho. In early September, Triumph Motorcycles joined the festivities there to celebrate the famous event.
The event was highlighted with Knievel’s son, Kelly, leading the motorcycle parade on a custom-painted Bonneville T120 alongside stunt rider Robbie “Maddo” Maddison on a custom Rocket 3. Another Triumph in the parade, a Speed 400, was ridden by six-time gold medal X Games champ Colby Raha.
Kelly and Maddison’s motorcycles’ custom themes were inspired by Evel’s original Bonneville T120-TT “Color Me Lucky”—the very motorcycle he used during his 141-foot jump over the Caesar’s Palace fountains in Las Vegas on Dec. 31, 1967. Another Bonneville T120 dubbed the “Skycycle,” was used to promote his planned Grand Canyon jump in 1972.
When Knievel couldn’t get the required permission to jump the Grand Canyon, the plan changed to jumping a quarter-mile gap over the Snake River Canyon in 1974. Doug Malewicki, an aeronautical engineer, was tasked with designing and building a “rocket-powered” motorcycle for this feat, called the “Skycycle X-1.”
This motorcycle was based on a heavily modified chassis and powered by a steam engine built by former NASA engineer Robert Truax. When the X-1 crashed in a test flight, the wheels were removed, and the machine became more of a rocket than a motorcycle.
Knievel blasted off in the X-2 rocket on September 8, 1974, but it had an issue when the drogue parachute deployed early, resulting in the machine and Knievel inside it landing down in the canyon.
Regarding the Bonneville T120 ridden by Kelly Knievel in the parade this year, Kelly said, “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.’ Robbie’s riding a Triumph Rocket with the same custom paint scheme as this bike, which feels a very appropriate way to celebrate the anniversary.”
