Many thought it would happen years ago, but no matter when it finally came about it’s still a sad day. It has been confirmed that motorcycle stunting legend Evel Knievel died in his Clearwater condo at the age of 69. The word of his death comes just days after settling the lawsuit against Kanye West for using Knievel’s trademarked images in one of West’s popular videos.

Evel Knievel began his career in 1965 when he formed Evel Knievel’s Motorcycle Daredevils, a group that toured and performed dangerous stunts involving rides through fire-lit walls, jumping over dangerous animals, and being towed behind dragsters down a track.

On September 8, 1974 Knievel tried to ride a motorcycle powered by rockets across the Snake River Canyon in Idaho but failed. His parachute deployed prematurely sending him and his motorcycle into the canyon walls, but Knievel walked away with only a few minor injuries. He lived his life performing many dangerous stunts like that one that left him injured many times including his Caesar’s Palace crash that broke over 80 bones in his body.

His son Robbie has followed in his footsteps completing dangerous stunts including a jump in 2000 over a locomotive, and a jump over a 200 foot wide section of the Grand Canyon.

(Image provided via Creative Commons License & Wikipedia)

What happens when you auction off a piece of MotoGP memorabilia that is an R1 airbrushed with a photo tribute to Valentino Rossi? You earn $30,000 with profits that are going to the Make-A-Wish foundation! I’m searching high and low for a photo of the auctioned off bike, but it’s now got a new home in Australia with Johny Arkisian. This is a one of a kind R1 that took over 225 hours of airbrush creativity by the very talented Mark Brown. Rossi loved the bike, and even added his signature to it.