Posted by pollster on December 18, 2008, 12:15 pm, in reply to "Re: The Challenges Knievel Faces on New Year's Eve"
76.89.9.113
I agree.thanks
--Previous Message--
: Somebody will probably call it a record -
: somebody on RK's crew. Unless they move some
: trees, he'll probably have to come up Las
: Vegas Boulevard, heading North, then turning
: left to step up over it. That's the most
: likely scenario. If not, he'll be on the
: property, heading East, jump over the
: volcano, land and go out into the street. I
: doubt that will happen, since the landing
: ramp would have to be pretty long to take
: him down to the lower street level.
:
: The volcano will look pretty, but the
: distance won't be that far. I've scoped that
: location out before.
:
: If both of those jumps happen at the same
: time, don't miss Robbie Maddison's jump at
: the Paris hotel and casino. That's the one
: to see, no contest.
:
: JA
:
: --Previous Message--
: what about Robbie Knievel? is that volcano
: jump dangerous? what about magma or lava?
: what kind of distance will it be? I'm
: betting it'll be a new world record.
:
: --Previous Message--
: I was lying in bed this morning, thinking
: about the challenges of Maddison's New
: Year's Eve jumps.
:
: It's been a while since I last talked about
: big dropoffs. To me, as a rider, dropoffs
: are the most exhilarating of all jumps. They
: provide the greatest rush. When I was 18, I
: dropped off of cliffs as high as what
: Maddison faces. For the rest of my life, I
: wanted to do it publicly on ramps, but never
: pulled it off. With Jennifer Caputo's help
: at Gil Combs' ranch, I did build an
: adjustable launching tower and steep landing
: ramp just for the purpose of dropping off of
: buildings, but was going through hell and
: dealing with injuries at that time and the
: whole project died.
:
: Imagine this, even though there's no way you
: can understand how exciting it is until you
: actually do it.
:
: You're on top of a cliff, and it's so high
: you're scared to even walk up to it and look
: down. You ride up to it at walking speed,
: and I mean walking speed! You're slipping
: the clutch off the top, and the clutch gives
: you total control of the launch and the
: attitude of the bike at that low speed. Your
: rear tire's contact patch leaves the top,
: and now you're looking down on the world,
: airborne, and the ground is waaaaay down
: there.
:
: As gravity accelerates you, you can't just
: freak out or freeze when you experience the
: awesomeness of the massive dropoff. You have
: a job to do, and that job is upshifting.
: Many motocrossers know that when you go off
: a dropoff you have to upshift, but imagine
: leaving the top of a cliff at walking speed
: and then landing tapped in 4th gear! I've
: done it, and I'm telling you that it's just
: stupendously exciting! It's more exciting
: than just about anything I've ever done! I
: love dropoffs more than anything!!!
:
: Man. It's so great that Maddison has such a
: picturesque location to do this thing. When
: I was 18 and older, every once in a while I
: would go to the top of a building, just
: dreaming of riding off the top of it,
: dreaming of building the ramp for it. Since
: I've done it before on cliffs, I totally
: know how it feels and I knew I could do it.
: There's nothing like a really big dropoff!
:
: Nothing compares to a big dropoff on a
: motorcycle. Skydiving didn't even excite me
: at all - it doesn't even compare. Ramp to
: ramp wasn't as exhilarating. Maddison will
: truly be doing something that will give him
: the greatest thrill.
:
: Now let's talk about the step-up he faces.
:
: 100-foot step-ups aren't new. There are
: three guys who have done 100 foot step-ups
: before, and I've talked with two of them.
: One of them died doing it. However, there's
: one key difference between their 100 foot
: step-ups and Maddo's. Those guys were
: jumping into a net. Maddo is landing on a
: structure.
:
: I know that jumping 100 feet high, even into
: a net, is highly thrilling by any standard.
: I've never done that, but as a rider who has
: done some big step-ups, I can tell you that
: it must be huge. The rush of hitting what
: amounts to a slightly toned down quarter
: pipe of mammoth proportions at highway
: speeds would peg anybody's Excite-O-Meter,
: and going that high with nothing to look at
: but the constellations is enough to give the
: American Heart Association a collective
: heart attack. In other words, I can't sell
: those guys short at all. They did something
: big.
:
: Let me talk about what Maddison has to do.
:
: He's going to have to hit that ramp fast and
: hard, probably in 4th gear, WFO. Then, on
: the way up, he'll have to downshift to 1st
: gear for the landing.
:
: The gyroscopic effect of his wheels spinning
: at 4th gear speed will keep the bike stable
: all the way to landing, and he'll be able to
: correct his yaw, pitch and roll, no problem,
: unless there's a big side wind.
:
: Let's pray that there are no winds that day!
:
: Here are the two primary dangers of the
: step-up jump: Going too slow (the worst) and
: going too fast(the 3rd worst).
:
: If he doesn't go fast enough, he'll Paul
: Fernandez into the wall of the Arc de
: Triomphe, which will then be re-named the
: Arc de Despaire . Hopefully there will be an
: air bag, just in case, so this talented
: jumper can possibly jump another day.
:
: If he over-amps and goes too fast, he'll fly
: too high, and that means a hard flatlander.
: In and of itself, a hard flatlander hurts,
: but that alone probably won't do extreme
: damage.
:
: So those two things, coming up short and
: going too fast, are the primary things he
: needs to avoid.
:
: Another nightmare scenario he faces is if he
: goes too fast off the launcher, flies too
: high, and then flatlands too hard, but in
: this scenario a variety of things can happen
: that will get really ugly, really quickly.
: I'll just mention two of them.
:
: Let's say he flatlands too hard and his face
: hits the bars with a resounding THWACK!
: Perish the thought, but it's possible, and
: this is what he faces, dammit! Such a
: landing could knock him silly or knock him
: straight out. He could then Doug Danger it,
: throttle on, right into one of three walls,
: then
:
:
: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
: all the way to the ground. That might be the
: very worst thing that could happen to him -
: worse than coming up short.
:
: Another nightmare scenario along the same
: vein is if he flatlands hard and breaks his
: right wrist, inadvertently gassing it and
: being unable to bail before hitting a wall
: and going over it.
:
: As you can see, this two-jump jump is truly
: dangerous, unforgiving and spectacular. I am
: concerned for him, and concerned for his
: very life. My dad is too. Anybody can see
: that he is really doing something special
: here. I pray that he can do every bit of
: preparation so that he is totally ready and
: calm on jump day, and that the weather is
: perfect. This is not the kind of jump for
: side winds. With the hotel right next door,
: the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe
: itself, there are vortices that can bring
: evil winds from odd angles. What we need is
: CALM conditions. Even a wind that the hotel
: blocks will turn into a vortex on the back
: side, where he's jumping.
:
: One more thing he faces is this: Everything
: he looks at on-site will just be concept
: drawings until the last minute, when they
: set up the ramps. I mean, those ramps are
: going to be blocking traffic routes into and
: out of the hotel. Management will want those
: ramps erected at the last second and removed
: immediately after the jump. This means that
: Maddison will have no time to mentally
: rehearse what he's looking at, on-site. If
: he had a month to look at it, he could
: mentally prepare for the mind-boggling view
: of it all and get psyched up for it. This
: will look nothing like his practice
: location! Not only will it look different,
: the light will be coming from different
: angles than the practice location. It will
: be lit better than the practice location,
: but it will look different.
:
: Another thing is the in-run. He'll have to
: quickly, and I mean quickly, dial in his
: acceleration to do this thing. He'll also
: have to dial in how he's going to get
: stopped at the bottom after the dropoff,
: mentally rehearsing it so he doesn't
: anticipate getting stopped, and therefore
: blowing something before that. He might be
: planning to stuff it into an air bag after
: leaving the landing ramp, since space is at
: a premium around there.
:
: This is huge, very special, very
: spectacular, and hard to beat. Let's all
: hope and pray that Maddison will make it
: safely, because this whole thing is going to
: be extremely difficult and dangerous. He
: knows that this is insane, and there have
: to be those times when he asks, "What
: in the hell have I gotten myself into?"
:
: Still, he knows he can do it, and I know he
: can do it too.
:
: JA
:
:
:
:
:
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