He Hit a Wooden Wall at Full Speed, But Someone Used the Wrong Wood | 1930s Harley Daredevil

Decades before Evel Knievel, a deaf daredevil from San Jose, California was already crashing a Harley-Davidson through solid wooden walls for a living. This is the true story of Jimmy "Daredevil" Washburn, the 1930s and 1940s motorcycle stunt rider who aimed his bike at a wall of planks, only to discover too late that someone had used the wrong wood. From picking prunes in the Santa Clara Valley to riding the Wall of Death at Coney Island, from jumping eight sedans in St. Louis to riding his 1932 Harley-Davidson VL flathead straight into the flaming Tunnel of Death, Washburn built one of the wildest careers in American motorcycle history. Twenty gallons of gasoline, a helmet, a set of leathers, and a boarded-up wall at the end. In this classic motorcycle documentary, we follow the carnival daredevil who called trick riding "sissy stuff," the stunts that nearly killed him, and the vintage Harley that survives today. For more forgotten motorcycle stories, subscribe to Classic American Motorcycles. Source note: details drawn from period newspaper accounts and The Vintagent's profile of Washburn (Greg Williams, 2024).