RIP Evel Knievel

Having spent the younger portion of my childhood in the 70s, it was absolutely necessary to have some sort of Evel Knievel paraphernalia. Well, it was if you were male, anyway. I recall having one of the toys driven by cheap plastic gears where you would either strip the gears or distort the housing enough to let the gears disengage in an attempt to get greater speed from your toy. In fact, it was similar to the one pictured prominently here.

I can’t honestly pin all of the blame for my love of large, fast motorcycles on Evel. I have no doubt he contributed to making motorcycles really cool when I was a kid. It all helped, I’m sure. Anyway, he’s passed on. I doubt we’ll see another one like him anytime soon.