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Am totally gutted to hear this very sad news, for those of us who ride bikes and read about them, this is a very bad day. A real loss to motorcycling journalism.
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Just read it on FB from one of my motorcycling groups....very, very sad. Enjoyed his writing - influenced me a little to buy my first GS.
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Died in an accident testing a new BMW bike..... Not a good review that!
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I'm neither a motorcycle enthusiast nor a Telegraph reader, but I did read his stuff occasionally and I was touched by the respect and affection evident in his colleagues' words about him. I hope he knew how they felt about him; too easy to leave these things unexpressed until we find it's too late.
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Some right moron DailyMail readers and their crass, ill-informed comments.
I spoke to my colleague Dave today, who does motorcycling for the newspaper, and he is due to attend the same launch in the next few weeks.
At present, nobody knows what occurred, and obviously an investigation is underway, so BMW are keeping a respectful silence.
I've got a pretty good idea of where the incident took place - I did a launch on the X5 down that part of the world a while back, and it is great driving/riding country.
I can only attest that BMW are one of the most professional and organised companies I have ever dealt with on launches, and their attention to detail and preparedness for any eventuality is legendary.
Having said that, a certain somebody threw his good name away on said launch, driving like a complete penis on roads he doesn't know, in a vehicle he was unfamiliar with, and attracted the ire of several scribes, who pointed out that it was OK for us if he wanted to kill himself, but to please make sure that he didn't take any of us with him.
For some reason, he didn't join us on day 2, and I have never seen him at any local events since.
If I hear anything else, I'll post here.
RIP Kevin.
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I'm not a biker. But I met a German in Algeria who had crashed his BMW in the Sahara and spent some time in hospital. He was still limping.
Dirt roads in the Sahara get hammered by traffic into a sort of coarse corrugated surface. Once it starts it is extended and maintained by the working of car and lorry suspensions. Canny desert drivers go round in the evening checking the bolts on suspension parts, dampers etc. which get a very thorough workout there and can come loose. Dampers really suffer and are soon no good. And there's no choice really but to endure the hammering. If you go fast enough just to skip across the tops of the corrugations, which is possible, you lose most steering which isn't wise. There are big rocks and deep sand close to the road sometimes and you don't want to get into those.
My German biker acquaintance said that the cast alloy front wheel on his beloved BMW had suffered a fatigue fracture between the spokes and the rim after hammering over this stuff for a few hundred miles sending him thing over whassername at some speed. He said he would get steel spoked wheels if he ever tried to cross the Sahara again (he didn't seem to fancy the idea much though).
Alloy bike wheels sometimes had as few as three spokes in those days, and I note the bike being ridden by Kevin Ash has more than that. No doubt BMW (to which my German remained passionately loyal) learned the lesson and made the necessary modifications. Still, I couldn't help wondering...
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 24 Jan 13 at 19:08
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BMW had a a problem in the 80/90s with metal fatigue affecting their bikes. No reports that I've picked up on in recent years - certainly nothing on the GS front - my first GS had alloys - my current ones has the spoked variety - they certainly look the business - and a very, elegant and beautiful engineering solution to fitting tubeless tyres on a spoked wheel. I would put my head on the block and say that I'm confident it wasn't connected to a wheel failure - as I often reflect to myself a bike can kill you in a thousand mundane ways.
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washboarding, Armel.
>>If you go fast enough just to skip across the tops of the corrugations, which is possible, you lose most steering which isn't wise.
Yep, certainly very unwise.
I've done a fair few trips on roads like that, and the car takes a pounding, and the evidence of body and panel flex is there when you stop - inevitably the boot and rear seats have a fair amount of fine sand accumulated in them.
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>> washboarding, Armel.
Yes, washboard, that's the one. The French call it 'tôle ondulée', corrugated iron.
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>>I've done a fair few trips on roads like that, and the car takes a pounding, and the evidence of body and panel flex is there when you stop - inevitably the boot and rear seats have a fair amount of fine sand accumulated in them.
>>
Only tried it once in a hire car when we went to Cape Vidal in Ian's land.
Tried all sorts of speeds en route to the beach.
It was a memerable trip and I just about retained my fillings !!!
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www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/General-news/2013/February/feb2813-kevin-ash-memorial-fund/
Spare a dime ! I will.
Beautifully written tribute in the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago - I'll scan it and post it later.
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Was that the tribute from some of his fellow journalists? Quite moving but jovial too?
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Yes it was I'll scan it in a minute and post it.
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Only just seen this,
>washboarding, Armel.
>>If you go fast enough just to skip across the tops of the corrugations, which is possible,
>>you lose most steering which isn't wise.
>Yep, certainly very unwise.
Just takes a bit of getting used to. Most of the roads I drove on in Namibia were corrugated dirt roads. Occasionally they would be graded, sprayed with water and rolled smooth but it wouldn't last longer than a few weeks.
Over those distances you simply can't mimse around like Lud just because the road is rough. The road between Alexander Bay and Steinkopf in Northern Cape is not for the faint hearted though. goo.gl/maps/XdLwf
The technique is to keep the rear end loose, so it's easiest and most comfortable in RWD cars with a light rear end. The old Pug 404 and Ford P100 bakkies were particularly good.
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>> The technique is to keep the rear end loose, so it's easiest and most comfortable in RWD cars with a light rear end. The old Pug 404 and Ford P100 bakkies were particularly good.
Heh heh, quite. You can't really mimse when the distances are great. Even so there are places where you really don't want to run off the road and discretion is the better part of valour. A road that seems to undulate gently going more or less straight can reveal with startling suddenness a hidden watercourse with rocks and a big sharp kink in the road... you need to notice those in time to slow under control. Or wait bleeding and thirsty for the next vehicle...
Must depend largely on how well you know the road. Most of my desert travel has been being driven, not driving. Techniques and vehicles vary depending on place, but in my quite limited experience real desert men of nomad extraction drive gently and economically usually in high gears and two wheel drive. People like Algerian security are another matter of course, but they have reliable back-up on call.
Peugeot 404 was a great car or pickup, comfortable, controllable and indestructible. Done a lot of dirt-road miles in those.
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I can't find any update to what happened. Any news anyone?
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No witnesses it would appear - you can die in a thousand mundane ways on a bike. A moment's inattention either from you or someone else. Seems he crashed and died on an off road section, it is mentioned in the Obituary I keep meaning to upload.
I was switched on today on my little trip - but death creeps up on you in the most unexpected ways.
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I'd heard that there was another motorcycle involved.
I'll do a bit of digging tomorrow.
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All very very sad. Great writer.
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There was mention of another bike in the Obit.
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Kevin Ash has died -very bad news - DP
