Johnny Destroys Front Wheel


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Johnny Airtime bottoms hard at 60 mph on the Mint to Horseshoe building to building jump in Las Vegas in 1988. The front hub broke into six pieces and 30 out of 36 spokes broke upon impact. The stock-sprung Honda CR500 was a week old. Here you can see the front wheel pushing out the left side of the front fender, turning left, independent of the handlebars. Johnny is starting the process of correcting by dragging the fork legs on the sides of the front tire to keep the bike going straight while trying to keep the throttle on the brutal CR500 shut off - hard to do when the bars are forcefully trying to turn left. This instantaneous reaction was performed while the suspension was totally bottomed out, with the front tire bottomed as well. The tire was inflated to 60 psi in an effort to save the rim, but the tire is completely flattened. Notice the concrete dust caused by the bottoming frame rails. Once down to about 30 mph, the front rim turned 90 degrees to the frame, overpowering him and turning the bars to the stops. Johnny slowly endoed. After going past the balance point about a foot, Johnny pushed off the footpegs and dove over the bars at a slight angle, getting the bike away from him and flipping to his back. He slid into a net on the rooftop without injury.

 
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