When most people consider Evel Knievel’s bike, they envision the daredevil’s iconic star-spangled Harley-Davidson XR750. Color-coordinated together with his well-known Stars and Stripes jumpsuit, the customized Hog virtually completes the Evel Knievel persona. However, Robert Craig Knievel was an adamant moto fanatic nicely past his ostentatious stunt spectacles.
As proof, Knievel opened Washington’s Lake Moses Honda dealership in 1965. During this time, Japanese imports acquired backlash from home producers and shoppers alike. So, to advertise enterprise, Knievel tried the primary stunt of his profession, leaping a crate of rattlesnakes and two mountain lions on a 250cc Honda scrambler.
The beginner stuntman’s effort went unrewarded, although, with struggling gross sales finally forcing him to shut up store. Still, Knievel’s affinity for Hondas by no means wavered. In 1979, he bought a brand-new Honda CBX. The revolutionary mannequin featured a 24-valve, 1,047cc inline-six engine producing 105 horsepower. That determine topped the CBX because the quickest manufacturing bike of its time.
Knievel could also be synonymous with record-setting feats of daring, however his 1979 Honda CBX lately made historical past on the public sale block. Selling for $49,500, the well-kempt CBX tied the mannequin’s motion value file throughout Mecum’s Las Vegas 2023 Vintage and Antique Motorcycle Auction.
Among the roughly 24,000 fashions produced by Honda in 1979, Knievel’s instance bares a really low serial variety of 449. The five-spoke Comstar wheels additionally set the mannequin yr other than subsequent CBXs. The showman couldn’t assist however customise the Honda, nevertheless. A customized 6-into-6 megaphone exhaust and a raised white Goodyear letting on the rear tire set this CBX aside.
The bought unit not solely included the manufacturing facility proprietor’s handbook but additionally got here with a duplicate of the unique Evel Knievel Experimental Research Inc. title and handwritten upkeep data. Most of us might envision Evel Knievel as a swashbuckling daredevil, however his record-tying 1979 Honda CBX proved the enduring stuntman was greater than only a persona.
Source: www.rideapart.com