Totally Awesome, and Worth the Wait

By: Travis Naughton

Totally Awesome, and Worth the Wait I learned how to ride a bicycle in 1977 when I was six years old. Mine was a Western Flyer model with metallic-flake purple paint, gooseneck handlebars (with purple and white tassels), a banana seat, and a racing slick on the back. It was a gorgeous street bike built for cruising down the boulevard while looking good doing it. Although it was called a Western Flyer, it was never meant to fly. Yet fly it did. Like most young boys in the 1970s, I idolized Evel Knievel, the legendary daredevil from Butte, Montana, who became a global sensation after spectacularly crashing his motorcycle while jumping the fountains at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas in 1967. Evel’s bikes, heavy street motorcycles including Nortons, Triumphs, and his iconic Harley-Davidsons, were not meant to fly either, yet fly they did.

See more in this weeks Boone County Journal