BILLINGS — Long after his passing, Butte native Evel Knievel continues to inspire daredevils.
It's the season when Sturgis, South Dakota, is inundated with motorcycles. Pick a size, shape or engine and you’ll likely find it.
What you don’t normally see is a guy trying to defy gravity on two wheels.
On a recent Saturday, thrill seekers watched 30-year-old Colby Raha channel his inner Evel Knievel. Knievel struck fame decades ago with his daredevil motorcycle jumps — many ending in success, and others in life-threatening crashes.
Watch Colby Raha sail 205 feet to break a world record in Sturgis:
Raha, a seven-time X Games gold medalist, is a big Evel Knievel fan.
“Yeah, I grew up watching him, and I think my dad said he would turn off the cartoons and put on supercross and Evel Knievel,” he said.
After that pre-jump interview, Raha aimed to break a 15-year-old world record for the longest Harley-Davidson V-Twin motorcycle jump in history — a mark Raha was determined to surpass.
“My team said you’re good, you just tied the record. You made it on the line, video proof,” Raha said. “I said, we came here to break a record and we’re not stopping until we do.”
It took him four tries, but he finally figured out how to lift 550 pounds of motorcycle 205 feet through the air to beat Seth Enslow’s mark.
“All I had to do, instead of hauling as fast as I could go, I had to leave it wide open off the lift," Raha said. "I think if the parking lot was 10 feet shorter, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”
This month's Sturgis rally is clearly showcasing not just typical and atypical Harleys but also a new Harley-Davidson world record — inspired by Butte’s Evel Knievel.
