Was Steve McQueen's Great Escape jump real?

There's long been debate about that famous stunt jump on what was a stock '62 Triumph.
Steve McQueen took several passes at it but ended up hurting his back during one attempt. That's when got his buddy and former teammate on the US ISDT team Bud Ekins to try it. It took serious balls to try and jump that deadly looking wooden barrier. Imagine getting impaled on that shit? Sheesh.
Anyway this cool video tells the whole story...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/drivin ... 718912.ece

And you can read a really great Bud Ekins interview here:
http://dirtbike.off-road.com/dirtbike/a ... ?id=331456

 

Another fun fact about those motorcycle scenes is that the German soldier who McQueen catches up in the wire to get the bike is actually McQueen, and during the jump scene McQueen is one of the Germans, so basically he's chasing himself

 

All the dirt bike jumps in the Val Kilmer movie "Top Secret" were real.

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