Every once in a while you get an idea that’s maybe better left as just an idea. Not in this case. Enter the RING OF FIRE jump. One day I happened to come across an old black and white photograph of a motorcyclist jumping through a ring of fire. While it was a super rad feat, upon closer inspection the stunt itself didn’t seem all that difficult. Sure, there were plenty of logistics and safety concerns to consider - but the actual process of building, igniting, and jumping the ring of fire couldn’t be that hard, right? It was that question that inspired us to find out for ourselves!

What also helped was the fact that around this time Evel Knievels birthday was coming up. Keeping that in mind, we thought what better way to celebrate than by doing a jump of our own. With an idea for a stunt and now a valid excuse to do it…we began!

Step 1, build the ring? There were a few ways to approach building the actual ring. We enlisted the help from our good friend and local legend Chastin Brand. Hand painter by trade and all around rad dude, Chastin will jump (pun intended) at the chance to do anything crazy and this was right up his alley. He offered not only his help in constructing the ring, but also his property to host the jump.

A day prior to the stunt we visited Chastin’s property to build everything and figure out the logistics. Our plan was to fab up a ring, wrap it in some sort of material, douse it in kerosene, and jump it. Our first attempt at making a ring was with using an old trampoline, but soon discovered that the ring was too big. For our next attempt we found an old bent up hay ring that was hiding in some brush and used that. After cutting it up, re-bending it, and tacking it together - we found it was perfect. To help with general construction and welding, we ended up bringing our good friend Prescott with. Prescott is a jack of all trades - used to be a roadie for Katy Perry, so he knew what he was doing.

Once our ring was finished, it was now time to figure out the jump. Chastin’s property is full of stuff. Like everything. Not in a junkyard / hoarder way - but the variety of cool old things laying around is plentiful. We knew we wouldn’t have a problem figuring out the launch and when we came across a tow behind trailer sitting unused, we knew that was it! Chastin had the brilliant idea of mounting a quick attachment point to the trailer itself to affix the ring to. This put the ring in the ideal location to jump through, but also ended up making the entire rig mobile… "Ring Of Fire Road Show" coming soon, maybe!

Next, we ended up pulling the trailer to the middle of Chastin’s flat track. After a few dry jumps, everything was feeling good and seemed to be in order. We finished up with some test fires to see what materials would ignite best and then called it a day. Having the jump in the middle of the flat track not only gave us ample room to work with, but also provided a natural fire barrier in case something were to go wrong… Remember safety? Chastin also has a fire truck. Like a real one. That works. And sprays water. So that was another reason we were in favor of doing it here.

We arrived back at the jump the following day, this time on a mission and with a slightly larger crew. We enlisted the help of a few members and friends to finish the setup, document the jump, and just come hangout, have fun, and ride some motorcycles. With the help from our rad group we quickly formed a plan and got to work. We wrapped the ring in our materials, doused it in kerosene, and attached it to the ramp. With the roll of the camera and a shout of “YEEHAW”, the ring was lit and the stunt began!

Let this be a lesson in the art of doing things. What started off as a maybe stupid idea, soon turned reality and into an all around fun and exciting project. We ended up doing this stunt to celebrate Evel Knievels birthday, but also used that as an excuse to see if we could actually pull something like this off. We here at Brother Moto live by and embrace the DIY spirit and all things “yeehaw”. We did it to say we did it. A big big big thanks to all those involved in making this a reality and supporting the wild idea - without them it wouldn’t have been possible.

THANKS TO…

Chastin and Lauren for being incredible hosts, awesome people, and always willing to do something crazy. Also for the source materials and tools to build it all! Prescott for his master fabricating skills and motorcycle transport. Christian for helping construct the ring, shooting some 16mm footage of the jump, and the hand drawn “Ring of Fire” title. Brittany for photographing the stunt amazingly. Video by Toby Thomas Johnston. Laurel for letting us borrow her handmade Evel Knievel costume. And Micah and Zack for lending a hand, being rad, riding motorcycles, and bike transportation.

Yeehaw, y’all.