Harley-Davidson Road King back-flip

Australasian FMX champion Kain Saul made headlines in late 2009 when he back-flipped a Harley-Davidson XR1200, followed by Steve Butler's brazen four minute romp inside the globe of death - also on a Harley.

The Mildura-based Harley-Davidson team behind both stunts is at it again, and Kain Saul is proving to be a stoic stuntman.

Saul has attempted what most sane people would view as utter insanity - back flipping a Harley-Davidson Road King.

While the XR1200 is a fairly wieldly motorcycle and not ridiculously heavy, the H-D Road King is exactly that - massively heavy and not particularly manoeuvrable. The Harley Davidson Road King's natural habitat is open country roads, highways and flowing B-roads. Not heart-stopping vert ramps...

As the sequence of photos shows, the almost 400kg motorcycle didn't quite pull through the entire flip, losing its momentum about half way through its rotation, which is understandable.

Have you seen the size of the motorcycle?

"He just wasn't making enough torque" said Gavin Walker of Quick-Fix Motorcycles in Mildura, the orchestrator of the stunt. "On the XR he leaves the ramp pulling about 3000rpm, but it was under two on the Road King. He soon got the feeling it wasn’t going to come round all the way".

Kain Saul narrowly avoided having the portly motorcycle land on him as he practiced for the stunt, landing safely in a pit full of foam blocks.

"That was a panic," said Gavin Walker as the bike landed upside down in the foam pit. "It was going to rain, so Kain didn’t have time to practise on the XR. The ground was damp, we didn’t have enough run up, and we had to be quick. But Kain got psyched to do it, and once he’d gone, he’d gone."

Work is currently underway from the bike's builder to improve the Road King's acceleration via some engine and gear ratio tweaks.

The life of a stunt team is never easy, and the aftermath was a little harrowing for all involved, as the heavy motorcycle buried itself deep within the foam pit. The Harley-Davidson then began leaking fuel inside the foam pit due to its orientation and the hot exhaust was beginning to make things a little dicey.

"The bike buried itself 20 feet down, started p*ssing out fuel and the exhaust caught on some of the foam. The boys had to dive down and keep coming back up with smouldering chunks until the crane came."

We wait with baited breath to see if the Quick Fix Motorcycles team and Kain Saul can deliver a world-first backflip on a Harley-Davidson Road King.

Read the latest Bikesales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at