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Rhys Millen's Truck Backflip - New Year's Eve 2008 (VIDEO) watch!

youtube.com — Rhys Millen was nearly able to backflip a truck at the Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. event in Las Vegas. His speed and rotation were perfect, but a slightly off-balance landing prevented him from riding away clean.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 4, 2009

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  • smoothmedia, on 01/04/2009, -0/+33Unfortunately, this isn't all that impressive without the landing.
  • gutterboy, on 01/04/2009, -0/+24Much better backflip in a car...@200+mph http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtV1DZ3imW0
  • anthonylam, on 01/04/2009, -0/+17Gotta say YouTube HD is crazy
  • mattharvey716, on 01/04/2009, -2/+13***** power users
  • emecks, on 01/04/2009, -4/+14Who cares if it he was able to drive away after it... He flipped a truck over backwards!
  • lewzer, on 01/04/2009, -0/+10Do a barrel roll!
  • onimusha115, on 01/04/2009, -0/+7i doubt it, if he had a broken neck or any bones at all jarring the truck to the upright position could do severe damage to him. Sure they practice these stunts but thats far from meaning its safe.
  • Nfed163, on 01/04/2009, -0/+7physics phail.
  • AmericanGunner, on 01/04/2009, -0/+6I think he used the boost to get through
  • Louis11, on 01/04/2009, -0/+5Apparently Red Bull doesn't give you wings, he came back down.
  • partrow, on 01/04/2009, -5/+10What a fake show of concern at the end. He has obviously practiced this stupid stunt a lot of times, and is well protected, but they have to act like he is possibly hurt. What a joke.
    If they were really going to rescue someone, they would bring the vehicle to an upright position first.
  • Geek180, on 01/04/2009, -1/+6Dugg for HD.
  • underground2019, on 01/04/2009, -0/+5He guys can someone tell me what happens in the video?
    I can't watch it till next year because I watched the ski-diving video.
  • MrChunks, on 01/05/2009, -0/+5To be fair, he did at least a triple back flip.
  • harusp3x, on 01/05/2009, -0/+4Looks like the ramp did all the work. I don't see what the big deal is. Let's give a big hand to ***** physics...
  • superspaldo707, on 01/04/2009, -1/+5the mechanics behind the jump itself are pretty cool..
  • barroni, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3Stig would have made it
  • conebone69, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3maybe they wanted us to see it while he was actually flipping the car.
  • BoneStamp, on 01/04/2009, -0/+3Agreed. But it's odd that the standard quality is still so *****.
  • sinembarg0, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3480p (EDTV, technically high definition) is 720x480.
  • xjosephko, on 01/04/2009, -3/+6WOW, for a sec i thought this was real life mario kart with the speed triangles and the flip. Rad.
  • csw3190, on 01/04/2009, -0/+3Is it me or did the driver not really have to do much but hold his speed (~35mph) and of course risk injury. More credit should go to the engineers behind the stunt.
  • themastersb, on 01/04/2009, -0/+3Anyone else feel like they need to drink Red Bull in order to do anything INTENSE now?
  • Wisgary, on 01/04/2009, -1/+4I like how red bull advertised under the car, possibly hoping he'd crash. Sabotage anyone?
  • cyrix, on 01/05/2009, -0/+3Jim DeChamp came extremely close at the last xgames. I imagine it will happen within the next 7 months or so. That's the next big trick people are gunning for now that Travis nailed the double back flip.
  • borez, on 01/04/2009, -0/+2What I want to see ( and I'm sure it's possible) is a front flip on a bike. I reckon (but I ain't trying it ) is that if you slam the front brake on while exiting a ramp you could theoretically do a front flip.

    Any takers?
  • jpole1, on 01/04/2009, -0/+2It was New Year's Eve, 2008.... In 2007 he got hurt in warm-ups the day before and wasn't able to actually make the attempt, so only Robbie Madison's jump happened. This year, they both had jumps, but Robbie's was the only fully successful one.
  • lopla, on 01/05/2009, -2/+4where is the skill involved with this? i could have done this crap, hell he was off on his approach and they screwed up the design of the landing ramp. ***** amateur. And the drama surround it, what is this an episode of the Hills or something? ***** GAY.
  • BoneStamp, on 01/04/2009, -0/+2You wanna try it?
  • SolubleFish, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2Who cares about Rhys Millen... all he had to do was accelerate towards the ramp.

    The real credit goes to his engineers and jump designers.
  • bag2p, on 01/04/2009, -1/+3yeah looking at the math equations would be pretty cool. /s
  • Eisim, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2what a ***** waste of time, money and resources this ***** is
  • Godlike, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2One day at a time. One truck backflip at a time.
  • Bigtruck, on 01/05/2009, -0/+2I love the fact that the Red Bull marketing people had the foresight to put a logo on the bottom of the truck for 'when' it didn't land right side up.
  • DarQraven, on 01/04/2009, -0/+2Theoretically, doing a front flip is possible. Practically, I don't think it'd be nearly as easy as a backflip.
    The thing with backflips is that the ramp is already giving you 90% of the momentum you need to complete the backflip. From there it's a matter of controlling the spin by shifting your weight.
    Also, considering the ramp launches you upwards at an angle of about 60-70 degrees, and you land on a downward slope, the airborne rotation of a backflip is far less than a full 360. More like 250.

    Now, when you're trying to do a frontflip, you have to counteract the momentum the ramp gives you *and* have enough momentum left to complete the higher rotation (this time you're doing nearly 450 degrees).
    I doubt that anyone could produce such a high momentum just by shifting their weight.

    You already suggested that you could do this by slamming the front brakes, but I think the problem there is that you have way too little control over them to accurately do the flip. The chances of rotating too far or too little are very high, which could result in painful situations;)

    Also, I'd imagine the landing is a problem. When landing a backflip, your ass is thrown into the seat of the bike, which absorbs the blow and this will stop your rotation relative to the bike.
    In a frontflip, your arms would have to absorb that blow, and there is a pretty good chance that the forces are simply too high to do this.

    I can see them doing this on lower jumps, but no way can they do it as high as the backflips (or even double flips) you see on TV.
  • borez, on 01/04/2009, -0/+2Somebody will do it, believe me... it's only a matter of time.
  • inactive, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1Well I guess he deserves the credit for having the balls to go through with it, especially after his first attempt broke his back. But yeah, all the skill that was involved was him being able to stick a set speed.
  • inactive, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1Me getting the reference saddens me, because it makes me realize how much time I waste on this goddamn website...
  • mattharvey716, on 01/05/2009, -1/+2Youtube HD lags for me :(
  • BoneStamp, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1Much better than previous YouTube video.
  • Godlike, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1Not anyone. First, one must lack intelligence.
  • BoneStamp, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1@2of8
    YouTube needs a variable data rate encoding strategy. Most major streaming operations employ it. People with limited connections get ***** video and people with high bandwidth connections receive a higher quality stream.
  • inactive, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1i noticed that too.
  • euphoria860, on 01/04/2009, -0/+1what a ***** nutcase
  • inactive, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1Well he broke several vertebrae in his back while doing a practice run for this jump, so I'd say the concern was legitimate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RavPi16b4IQ#t=13s
  • inactive, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1Natural selection at work.
  • cyrix, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1They practiced this alot, but he never attempted before this to land it on a dirt landing like he did. He had all "soft" landings in all of the practice runs. So there was a very good chance he could have been injured given they had no idea what a failed attempt on a much harder surface would yield.
  • thrillhouse900, on 01/05/2009, -1/+2you're all rednecks
  • 2of8, on 01/05/2009, -0/+1Yeah, I came here to say that. Really, once all the mechanics are calculated, you have to go in a straight line at the set speed. Right? I mean, you could even turn cruise control on and then read a newspaper :P

    yeah I'm probably downplaying the driver's role in this, but I would say that he is not the main person behind this.
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