I remember that this guy was a featured guest at an ISDT event in northern
California in 73 or 74 and I watched him leave all us young bucks with hung
jaws - he made a borrowed bike do stuff that in retrospect was not that much
different than what you might see on an episode of "Superbikes Meets
Supercross" only he was riding dinosaur technology and was an "old man" in
his 40's.
Bud Ekins, a pioneering off-road motorcycle racer best known for
his work as Steve McQueen's stunt double, died at his Hollywood home Saturday,
October 6. He was 77. For years, movie fans thought McQueen jumped the
barbed wire fence in 1963's "The Great Escape" and powered the Mustang through
San Francisco in 1968's "Bullitt," but it was Ekins, who never spoke of it.
Ekins was a successful off-road motorcycle racer, winning four gold medals
and a silver in the International Six Day Trials in the 1960s. He held the #1
plate in California for seven years and founded the Baja 1,000. Later in life
he owned up to 150 vintage motorcycles, 54 of which were separate American
makes.
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