Moto cross and bike racing that we know today would most likely not be the same without the creation of the Harley XR-750. In 1970 the Harley Davidson XR-750 was brought out on the market for the flat track racers that desired more speed (Masker, 2015). It was not the most dependable bike when it first came out, it had through some modifying to become the bike that was known for winning numerous championships and jumping greyhound buses. This flat track bike was made by harley and it was built for racing around a flat track. It was built from 1970-1972 (Masker, 2015). Because of the durability and speed of the 1972 Harley Davidson XR-750 , racing was pushed to the next level and Evel Knievel’s seemingly impossible jumps were made possible. Development of the XR-750 The XR750 came around in 1970, because there was a change of rules in the AMA (Masker, 2015).The new regulations no longer limited the motorcycles to be 500cc (Masker, 2015). That meant they could use bigger motors …show more content…
He surprisingly land many more then what he crashed. Knievel was able to land most of him jumps because, the XR-750 was modified to make the jumps more possible (Smithsonian, 2017). Knievel actually Modified the bike himself, he made the bike more lightweight by replacing steel parts with aluminum and fiberglass while making sure the frame was still sturdy (Smithsonian, 2017). In total the bike was a 300 pound dependable and powerful machine (Smithsonian, 2017). Evel left the ramps at 90 mph plus with the XR-750 (Smithsonian, 2017). So the bike had to be sturdy. He succeeded his jumps by meticulously coordinating his speed, thrust and angle (Owen, 2008). Evel performed is jumps on motorcycles that by today's standards are ancient. The motorcycles had very little suspension and could not compare to the techknowledge of today's bikes (Owen,