The New BMW R1200GS Press Launch - My "EPIC" Journey to South Africa

[Montauk]

Extremely tragic. My condolences to family and friends.

Shawn, you have any news for us whatsoever?

[RichBMW]

Originally Posted by Montauk

Extremely tragic. My condolences to family and friends.

Shawn, you have any news for us whatsoever?

I'm guessing that everyone in attendance is on VERY strict instructions to say nothing right now. Rightly so.

[NLS]

VERY sad news. Just found out in MCN and in his own site.
Very respected in motorcycle journalism and motorcycle community in general.
Dammit, I was waiting for his GS report. :(

RIP Kevin, ride those long twisties up there.
Condolences to his family.

The event was naturally postponed.

[twinrider]

Very tragic. Whether or not you agreed with his conclusions his reviews were always very thoughtful and his website was a real service to the motorcycle community.RIP Kevin.

[jimbowie]

That is just horrible. He surely was a breath of fresh air in the motojournalist community. He will be watching us from above for sure.

[RichBMW]

I've just read that the press launch has been postponed. I guess the OP is on his way home?

[MJS]

Originally Posted by RichBMW

I've just read that the press launch has been postponed. I guess the OP is on his way home?

Yes. I'm sure more details will trickle out in the coming days / weeks.

[stormcloud]

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/fi...gs_first_ride/

[eddyturn]

Its that new beak that drives me nuts... too big again. Looks like some sort of cutter blade for getting through pedestrian heavy areas.

[Adv Grifter]

I'm a little concerned about how quiet the moto world is about this so far regards details of the accident. I guess it's a good thing ... respect the family and Kevin's memory.

BMW seems to have really put a lid on this. Very tight indeed. Did something happen that might reflect poorly on BMW ... or the bike? The Brit press are ruthless and I'm sure will be all over this as soon as some grieving time has passed.

I'm sure in the next week will get an eye witness account of this very sad drama. I've read Ash for over 20 years. One of the best ever. God Speed Kevin

[tallguy-09]

Originally Posted by Adv Grifter

I'm a little concerned about how quiet the moto world is about this so far regards details of the accident. I guess it's a good thing ... respect the family and Kevin's memory.

BMW seems to have really put a lid on this. Very tight indeed. Did something happen that might reflect poorly on BMW ... or the bike? The Brit press are ruthless and I'm sure will be all over this as soon as some grieving time has passed.

I'm sure in the next week will get an eye witness account of this very sad drama. I've read Ash for over 20 years. One of the best ever. God Speed Kevin

Translation from www.motorradonline.de with some minor corrections.

"Motorcycle Tester Ash road with a group of fellow British motorcycle journalists on the new BMW R 1200 GS on a straight gravel road.
The trail was flat, but dusty, so that the individual riders had to hold significant distance from each other.
A BMW guide rode ahead of them and set the pace. The group rode with a maximum speed of 100 km/h, what was perfectly adequate
for the road conditions.
The fall, as reported by MOTORRAD head of testing Gert Thöle happened on the open road, for no apparent reason.
Thöle spoke with locals involved and assumes that probably exactly the harmlessness of the route was the reason for the accident: "I believe that Kevin,
who was not a fast rider taking any unnecessary risk, but a calm and careful rider, has been inattentive for a moment or has perhaps focused on
something different about the new bike. "He might have overlooked rain gutters that ran left and right of the road, and therefore lost control of the motorcycle.
According to the current investigation BMW flew it's own accident specialists to South Africa, it is clear that Kevin Ash's bike subsequently overturned.
The 53-year-old motorcycle tester was killed instantly"

[Adv Grifter]

Thanks for posting that account ... but note, the statement is from BMW employees.

If he was riding with other moto journos from the UK ... I'll await their take on the accident. They won't be doing any spinning.

Hard to imagine a guy with 50 years riding experience would just randomly ride off the road into a ditch ... but stranger things have happened.

[EJ_92606]

Puzzling....perhaps an autopsy might reveal if he suffered a heart attack or something? No mention of the other down rider either.

[EJ_92606]

Originally Posted by Adv Grifter

Thanks for posting that account ... but note, the statement is from BMW employees.

If he was riding with other moto journos from the UK ... I'll await their take on the accident. They won't be doing any spinning.

Hard to imagine a guy with 50 years riding experience would just randomly ride off the road into a ditch ... but stranger things have happened.

Agree, but I think the above quotes are not from BMW but from Motorrad magazine employees who may have been present at the scene, but I could be mistaken.

[tallguy-09]

Originally Posted by Adv Grifter

Thanks for posting that account ... but note, the statement is from BMW employees.

If he was riding with other moto journos from the UK ... I'll await their take on the accident. They won't be doing any spinning.

Hard to imagine a guy with 50 years riding experience would just randomly ride off the road into a ditch ... but stranger things have happened.

That report is from "MOTORRAD" a German motorcycle magazine, not from BMW but of course far from being an official accident investigation report.
Maybe better to not speculate, however, to me it looks like a very unfortunate accident with a horrible outcome.