That’s a good point. I remember watching it live on ABC’s Wide World Sports back then. We were glued to the TV set wondering if he’d land in the river below.
And we should keep in mind Evel’s equipment was terrible. It’s amazing how seat of the pants he was. Just compare his Ceasar’s jump to Robbie’s, look at the landing ramps. That’s what made Evel’s crash, his ramp flexed like crazy, then bounced back up, his foot came off the peg, and that was it. Robbie’s ramp could probably have a car dropped on it and wouldn’t flex. So that rocket was probably really under engineered, serious backyard type stuff. Of course it could be the button was in a bad place and the Gs made him bump it. I’d still call that equipment failure. I took a lot of bumps and bruises playing Evel Knienvel on my back, also with under engineered ramps.