Wow!

Did you see the fantastic jump Robbie Kneivel made Wednesday night?
Let's look at the excitement, frame by frame

Ordinarily, Robbie can sit on his bike and rev the motor and "get ready" to jump
but this time he has to go when the train is ready, when the train gets to "Point A."
When he first hit the gas, his tires spun in place and he went nowhere for a second or two.
This is bad when you have a date with an oncoming train.

Here he comes towards ramp, moving from right to left.

Coming up to the ramp, the train is moving left to right and is
going to destroy that wooden ramp in less than two seconds.

Kneivel is barely visible as he starts up the ramp.

Here, you see the train about to smash the ramp,
and Kneivel is still on that ramp, waiting to launch skyward.

At this moment, there's not even time to say, "One Massabama"
before the train, the ramp, and apparently Kneivel, will become one.

Damn, my heart is pounding watching these stills!

At this point, the train is traveling east going 38 MPH,
and Cycleboy is heading west doing about 120 MPH.
Here you see the train starting to crush the ramp as Kneivel's head
and shoulders appear at the beginning of his launch into the air.
 

Will he survive?
 
 

A fraction of a second later, he's still on the ramp, and that train's still a-comin'.
I don't know what you do for a living, but this man has more balls than Susan McDougal.
What's it like staring into the eye of an oncoming train?

Another view from far away.
Remember, the train's doing 38 MPH, Robbie's doing 120.
If this doesn't look that close, remember the speed he's traveling.

As predicted by  bartcop.com  that ramp no longer exists.
If you look very closely, you can see Robbie in the exact center of this shot,
lost in the cloud of steam coming out of this hundred-year old train.

In most jumps, we're just getting to the exciting part.

In this jump, Robbie has survived the launch, all he has to do now
is figure out where the ramp is, where his bike is, what angle he's working on,
the pitch and speed of his bike, and nevermind that he's f-ing blind at the moment.

With the steam and smoke out of his eyes, he regains the gift of sight,
and he can begin to start the landing calculations in his head.

With buoa fortuna, Robbie discovers the ramp is right where it's supposed to be.
All he's gotta do now is figure out a way to land.

Back on Earth, but still going 120 MPH, Robbie wonders why
they didn't put more effort into the stopping part of the show.

Now shooting across a bumpy Texas field doing 100 MPH,
Robbie wishes he'd listened to his mother about becoming an accountant.

A wall of hay brings a soft landing to a fantastic jump.

Finally, Robbie runs to a microphone to praise God.
Good for him.

When you make a jump like that, you can praise
snake-handling or cock-fighting as far as I'm concerned.

Whew!

There's nothing like a cycle jump.  It's got all the excitement of
a Superbowl and a heavyweight fight all crammed into about 30 seconds.

Robbie, you delivered the goods on February 23, 2000.

A Shot of Chinaco for Robbie Kneivel!

back to  bartcop.com