Evel Knievel is a famous American stunt rider, entertainer, and motorcycle designer. He was born in Butte, Montana, in 1938. When he was 10, his father gave him his first motorcycle, which he rode to school for the first time when he was 11 years old. While in high school in Butte, Evel attended the National Showcase of Motorcycles in Spokane, Washington, where his talent was noticed by exhibitors
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When Evel returned home, he started working at the Butte Harley-Davidson dealership. He saved up money from selling motorcycles to buy another motorcycle. This one earned him much more money than the previous one did and it would be this motorcycle that would lead him to fame and fortune.
After graduating from high school at age 16, Knievel moved to California and began working at a motorcycle shop owned by his friend and mentor Cliff Glover.
Two years later, Knievel bought out Cliff's share of the business and renamed it "Evel's Cycles." In 1959 he opened a second store in Long Beach; two years later he opened a third store (still open today) in Hollywood.
Evel Knievel gained instant celebrity status after performing a series of jumps without a helmet or safety gear on television while riding his motorcycle over water and through traffic on Lake Erie's Agate City Jetty on March 8–9 of 1964. He also had an intense rivalry with fellow daredevil Billy Cannon and became known as "The Snake," due to the number of times he crossed paths with Cannon during races and exhibitions.
In 1965, Knievel broke his back by crashing his new custom-built motorcycle into a concrete barrier 10 feet short of the finish line while performing on ABC-TV's Wide World of Sports show. The following year, after recovery from major surgery on both feet and ankles that put him into traction for six months, Knievel attempted to become only the second person ever to jump two cars at once when he jumped two cars off a ramp at San Jose International Airport on August 18–19 of 1966—a feat that had been accomplished only once previously by Cannon himself in 1953 at New Jersey Motorsports Park near Millville—but ended up crashing into the barrier for a second time when his front wheel fell off after jump number two.
The failure caused him to suffer from chronic pain for the rest of his life. Despite these setbacks their popularity soared even further after Knievel