John Barker Attempts The Austin Church Gap
FatTony
- June 15 2009
- 3,679 views
- 50 comments
For those of you who don’t know or are too young to know, the Austin Church Gap is a famous gap in Austin, Texas that Jimmy LeVan jumped on the first Road Fools back in 1998. It’s about an 11 stair down, then a street/driveway, then a four stair up. It is far as crap and the runway is less than ideal, and in this clip John Barker somehow escapes death when he barely tags the last step. His bike on the other hand paid the ultimate price.
Here’s Jimmy LeVan pulling it in Road Fools 1. (1:00 mark)
On a side note… Long before Nathan Williams even had any sponsors I saw him (in person) contemplating doing a 180 over this same gap. I wonder who will be the next person to jump the gap or the first person to trick over it? Who do you think? Write it in the comments.





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June 15th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
that blows for his bike thats an insane gap
June 15th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
why was he going so slow he would have mad eit if he was going faster
June 15th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
what rim was he running?
June 15th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I reckon Dan Lacey could trick that gap.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
garret renolds or dennis enarson can trick it
June 15th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
corey wiergowski
June 15th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Sean Burns will do his sig. reach around jerk down that gap.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
dennis enarson or garrett reynolds: truck driver and tailwhip. haha
totally do-able for both those guys
June 15th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Yeah, why didn’t he barspin it?
June 15th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
i think u can still fix that wheel , hahaha.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
0.0
June 15th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
It looked like one of the Odyssey ones. Either Hazard Lite or 7KA?
June 15th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
What was the negative stuff about Rob-o at the beginning of the video?
June 15th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
did he have to go and bend his bars too????
June 15th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
no one is tricking that gap maybe a turndown
June 15th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
damn if someone does trick that gap, that shit would be insane!!! Pretty Gnarly gap…..props to whoever attempts.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
see, the old fashioned, probably 48 spoke wheels, withstood that gap. Someone should front flip it.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
someone should front flip it… yeah… i also think the wheel exploded cause he cased it…. perhap you should frontflip your face.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
i think Sean Burns will toboggan it
June 15th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Jimmy Levan is still the man!
June 15th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
no one is tricking shit.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
did he just ditch his bike when he propped it up against that wall. pros are pretty lucky that they get free bikes that top $2000.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Sean Burns tobaggan, or maybe, maybe someone could no-hand it?
June 15th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
dude that is a monster gap
June 15th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I’m gonna tuck no-flanders that shit when i get back to the states.
June 15th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
well the frame did good!!!!
June 15th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
dude. a superman might be a good trick for it. or a nohandler. that’d do it. im sure if he tried it agian hed trick it.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
damn, everyone is so baby-faced.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Chris Doyle turndown that gap with no problem !
June 15th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Didn’t Paul Buchanan tailwhip that gap, out riding alone, years ago?
June 15th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
haha jimmy shit is so gnarly haha
June 16th, 2009 at 2:34 am
sean burns could do it.
that wheel got wasted. sucks about his bars. props for even trying to jump it. wonder if he’ll try again with a new wheel?
June 16th, 2009 at 5:56 am
And Jimmy did that shit on a bike weighing in at about 40lbs. Try that with your girl jeans on!
June 16th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Sean Burns 4 sure
June 16th, 2009 at 9:12 am
shoulda bought g-sport
June 16th, 2009 at 11:40 am
180?
June 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
karl poynter: fakie hop to slider all the way down the sidewalk. hah
June 16th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
word …
June 16th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
wow what a baby throwing his bike and whatnot… dont blame the bike its his fault he didnt make it. it probably broke andstuff cause he throws it too much. haha. baby.
June 17th, 2009 at 10:32 am
shut up you fuckin coon.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Jimmy has been doing gaps this big since the early 90’s. He doesn’t follow trends…he goes big on just about everything .
http://bmx.transworld.net/2006/07/19/jimmy-levan-gap-sequence-july-19-2006/
June 18th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Asshole……….wasn’t ever gonna happen…….bike throwing sucks
June 21st, 2009 at 7:15 pm
you have to see this in person to understand how massive it is. no one is tricking this anytime soon and its practically a death wish to even attempt to clear it. you guys are either fuckign crazy or 11 years old.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:04 am
If youve never been there you wouldnt understand. There is no run up to that shit.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:06 am
Hell no! He just rides like any other person.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:17 am
Yeah i think if anybody was going to trick it it would have been done. Only two people have done it in the past eleven years. Of course his back wheel blew up. 48 spokes wouldnt have mattered. So what if he chunks his bike a little its a victory.He pulled it in my book. If you walk away from that shit you landed. I live in austin and i cant even imagine somebody hitting that shit. You should check out there whole dvd if you can its called Solid Steel. Sean Burns might be able to trick it but the run up is so shitty.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:22 am
That bike breaking is what I’ve always said. Bikes and parts these days are weak. I ride 48’s and slam and they till roll straight. My old Berringer bars arent broke either. I weigh 175 and beat the hell out my bike. Nothing broke. Choose your parts wisely. Old school knows…
July 5th, 2009 at 12:32 am
that is a hazard lite rim but nothing could of saved the wheel
July 16th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
i hit it and back tire hit and i was fucked
September 27th, 2009 at 2:45 am
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.