Volume 14 Number 86 Yes it’s true, our very own Rodney, has disgracefully decided to attempt to break American stuntman “Evil Knievel’s” world record of 433 bone fractures while riding motorcycles. (I have included an expose on Evil for those of you who have not heard of him. Although come to think of it, if you don’t know who he is, then you haven’t lived! Scribe.) While taking part in an adventure ride to Nieu Betesda for the “Pielkop (Dick-head) Rally,” he took a tumble while riding his GS and suffered multiple fracture to his “tib-fib”. At the time they were riding on a mountain, which made rescue very difficult. Fortunately there was cell phone coverage (which is remarkable as my youngsters living on the West Rand don’t even have coverage where they live.) and an emergency Medevac helicopter was dispatched to fetch him and take him to his second home-St Dominic’s Hospital in East London. Fortunately for Rodney and Michele they were riding with fellow bikers John Quinn and Julian Pretorius, who helped make Rodney comfortable and wait for the rescue helicopter to arrive. Fortunately Michelle was riding with Julian, and was thus spared from taking a tumble as well. When the helicopter arrived the medics stabilised Rodney, gave him some wonderful stuff for the pain and flew him back to East London. Michelle was rescued by a handsome farmer (Her words not mine) Brad Emslie, who took her off the mountain and waited with her until our very own Michelle Theron was able to drive through to Katberg to fetch her. Unfortunately the next morning John on his way back home skidded round a corner and wiped out. He suffered a sprained ankle, a scraped elbow and a blue finger. Unfortunately I have not had any reports on how the “Pielkop Rally” was, but back in East London Rodney underwent an operation on Sunday morning and is said to be on the mend. When approached about his world record attempt, all I got was a broad smile and some sign language which I can’t repeat. Rodney from all of us, we love you and we wish you a speedy recovery and great success with your record attempt. FOREVER YOUNG 1 Rodney, down but not out! Rodney playing “Candy-Crush.” Rodney eating a “Candy-Bar.” “All that glitters is not Gold. The Medi-vac arrives. Trying to find that vein. Moving that fractured leg, This beats walking. The “happy juice” kicks in. OWWWWW!!!!!!! Some curious locals came to watch. Before the opp. The nurses are cute! Michelle would like to thank the guys for their assistance, the para-medics for fetching Rod, the handsome farmer who took her off the mountain, Michelle for coming all the way from East London to Katberg to fetch her and the hospital staff at St Dominic’s for repairing Rodney and putting up with his nonsense. FOREVER YOUNG 2 Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel (October 17, 1938 – November 30, 2007) was an American daredevil, painter, entertainer, and international icon. In his career, he attempted more than 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps between 1965 and 1980, and in 1974, a failed jump across Snake River Canyon in the Sky-cycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket. He suffered more than 433 bone fractures in his career, thereby earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of "most bones broken in a lifetime". Knievel died of pulmonary disease in Clearwater, Florida, aged 69. In his obituary in British newspaper The Times, Knievel was described as one of the greatest American icons of the 1970s. Knievel was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. Born in Butte, Montana in 1938, Bobby Knievel was the first of two children born to Robert E. and Ann Marie Keough Knievel. His surname is of German origin; his great- great-grandparents on his father's side immigrated to the United States from Germany. Robert and Ann divorced in 1940, after the birth of their second child, Nicolas, known as Nic. Both parents decided to leave Butte. Bobby and Nic were raised by paternal grandparents, Ignatius and Emma Knievel. At the age of eight, Bobby attended a Joie Chitwood Auto Daredevil Show, to which he gave credit for his later career choice to become a motorcycle daredevil. Knievel ended high school after his sophomore (second) year and got a job in the copper mines with the Anaconda Mining Company as a diamond drill operator. However, he preferred motor biking to all this "unimportant stuff", as he put it. He was then promoted to surface duty where he drove a large earth mover. Knievel was fired when he made the earth mover do a motorcycle-type wheelie and drove it into Butte's main power line. The incident left the city without electricity for several hours. Without work, Knievel began to find himself in more and more trouble around Butte. After a police chase in 1956 in which he crashed his motorcycle, Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving. When the night jailer came around to check the roll, he noted Robert Knievel in one cell and William Knofel in the other. Knofel was well known as "Awful Knofel" ("awful" rhyming with "Knofel") so Knievel began to be referred to as Evel Knievel ("Evel" rhyming with "Knievel"). He chose this misspelling because of his last name and because he didn't want to be considered "evil". Always looking for new thrills and challenges, Knievel participated in local professional rodeos and ski jumping events, including winning the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1959. During the late 1950s, Knievel joined the United States Army. His athletic ability allowed him to join the track team where he was a pole vaulter. After his army stint, Knievel returned to Butte where he met and married his first wife, Linda Joan Bork. FOREVER YOUNG 3 He joined the motocross circuit and had moderate success, but he still couldn't make enough money to support his family. During 1962, Knievel broke his collarbone and shoulder in a motocross accident. The doctors said he couldn't race for at least six months. To help support his family, he switched careers and sold insurance for the Combined Insurance Company of America, working for W. Clement Stone. Stone suggested that Knievel read “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude,” a book that Stone wrote with Napoleon Hill. Knievel credited much of his success to Stone and his book. Knievel was successful as an insurance salesman (even selling insurance policies to several institutionalized mental patients) and wanted recognition for his efforts. When the company refused to promote him to vice-president after a few months on the job he quit. Wanting a new start away from Butte, Knievel moved his family to Moses Lake, Washington. There, he opened a Honda motorcycle dealership and promoted motocross racing. During the early 1960s, it was difficult to promote and sell Japanese imports and the Moses Lake Honda dealership eventually closed. After the closure, Knievel went to work for Don Pomeroy at his motorcycle shop in Sunnyside, Washington. It is here where Jim Pomeroy, a well-known motocross racer, taught Knievel how to do a "wheelie" and ride while standing on the seat of the bike. While trying to support his family, Knievel recalled the Joie Chitwood show he saw as a boy and decided that he could do something similar using a motorcycle. Promoting the show himself, Knievel rented the venue, wrote the press releases, set up the show, sold the tickets and served as his own master of ceremonies. After enticing the small crowd with a few wheelies, he proceeded to jump a twenty-foot-long box of rattlesnakes and two mountain lions. Despite landing short and having his back wheel hit the box containing the rattlesnakes, Knievel managed to land safely. Knievel realized to make any amount of real money he would need to hire more performers, stunt coordinators and other personnel so that he could concentrate on the jumps. With little money, he went looking for a sponsor and found one in Bob Blair, owner of ZDS Motors, Inc., the West coast distributor for Berliner Motor Corporation, a distributor for Norton Motorcycles. Blair offered to provide the needed motorcycles, but he wanted the name changed from the Bobby Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils Thrill Show to Evil Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils. Knievel didn't want his image to be that of a Hells Angels rider, so he convinced Blair to allow him to use Evel instead of Evil. The debut of Knievel and his daredevils was on January 3, 1966, at the National Date Festival in Indio, California. The show was a huge success. Knievel received several offers to host the show after their FOREVER YOUNG 4 first performance. The second booking was in Hemet, California, but was cancelled due to rain. The next performance was on February 10, in Barstow, California. During the performance, Knievel attempted a new stunt where he would jump, spread eagle, over a speeding motorcycle. Knievel jumped too late and the motorcycle hit him in the groin, tossing him fifteen feet into the air. He was placed in the hospital as a result of his injuries. When released, he returned to Barstow to finish the performance he had started almost a month earlier. Knievel's daredevil show broke up after the Barstow performance because injuries prevented him from performing.