Kevin Ash (10 December 1959 – 22 January 2013) was a British motorcycle journalist and author, who contributed to ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' and to ''

Motor Cycle News ''MCN'' or ''Motor Cycle News'' is a UK weekly Motorcycle, motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Verlagsgruppe, Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspape ...

''. Covering technical as well as topical issues, Ash was described as "one of the key figures of the British motorcycle scene", "one of the world's leading motorcycle journalists", and "the

doyen Doyen and doyenne (from the French word ''doyen'', ''doyenne'' in the feminine grammatical gender) is the senior ambassador by length of service in a particular country. In the English language, the meaning of doyen (feminine form: doyenne) ha ...

of motorcycle correspondents."

Personal life

Ash was born in Ilford, a town in north-east London, part of

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

administrative area. He attended

Ipswich School Ipswich School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils aged 3 to 18 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. North of the town centre, Ipswich School has four parts on three adjacent sites. The Pre-Prep and Nursery ...

, then studied engineering at

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. In 1990, he married Caroline Quanjer, of the Netherlands, with whom he had three daughters: Laurien, Kirsten and Ingrid, who were 20, 18 and 10 at the time of his death.

Career

Before becoming a journalist, Ash was a

motorcycle courier A motorcycle courier, also known as a despatch rider or motorcycle messenger, is a courier using a motorcycle. Motorcycle couriers are common in the major urban centres of Europe, South America (especially Brazil), Asia and North America. ...

. He also participated in sidecar racing. In 1991, he was a founding contributor at the magazine ''Fast Bikes''. He then joined ''

'' (''MCN'') as a road tester in 1993,''

'' 22 December 1993 p.9 ''Internal Masthead, Road Tester Kevin Ash.'' and pp.10–13 ''MCN First Ride: Kawasaki ZX-9R, Road Test by Kevin Ash'' Accessed and added 8 October 2014 following a road traffic accident involving a car and a BMW K1100RS ridden by (then) ''MCN'' road editor Chris Dabbs, who suffered life-changing injuries.The Biker's Tale, by ''Chris Dabbs''
Retrieved 8 October 2014 Ash progressed to assistant editor until leaving in 1997 to become a

freelance writer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

. As a freelancer, he contributed to ''

'' for 15 years as its motorcycling correspondent. Ash authored several motorcycle-related books, including ''BMW Motorcycles: The Evolution of Excellence'' and ''Ducati People: Looking into the Lives of the Men and Women Behind This Legendary Marque.'' He also authored a guide, ''Going Dutch'', in the late 1990s on the

parallel import A parallel import is a non- counterfeit product imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner. Parallel imports are often referred to as grey product and are implicated in issues of international trade, ...

right-hand drive Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...

cars to the United Kingdom from other countries in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

Death

Ash was involved in a fatal motorcycle crash near

George, Western Cape George is the second largest city in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The city is a popular holiday and conference centre, as well as the administrative and commercial hub and the seat of the Garden Route District Municipality. It is na ...

in South Africa, during a press test ride at the launch of the 2013

BMW R1200GS The BMW R1200GS and R1200GS Adventure are motorcycles manufactured in Berlin, Germany by BMW Motorrad, part of the BMW group. It is one of the BMW GS family of dual sport motorcycles. Both motorcycles have a , two-cylinder boxer engine with four ...

. Ash crashed his R1200GS motorcycle during one of BMW's six scheduled press launch trips that included a total of 60 to 70 journalists, while passing through

Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve is a protected area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Characteristics The Baviaanskloof - (Dutch for "Valley of Baboons") - lies between the Baviaanskloof and Kouga mountain ranges. The easternmost point o ...

on a gravel road between

Willowmore Willowmore is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The town is situated 140 km north-east of Knysna and 117 km south-west of Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar ...

and

Patensie Patensie is a town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Patensie lies along the R331 road just south of Noorshoek. The Kouga Dam is located several kilometres to the west. The name is Khoi ...

. UK motorcycle journalist Alun Davies, following directly behind Ash on another motorcycle, either struck or narrowly avoided striking (reports vary) the fallen Ash and his motorcycle, which straddled the route. Davies was treated at a hospital for a dislocated shoulder and other injuries and discharged several days later. BMW engineers from Germany were brought to South Africa to investigate all the test motorcycles. investigators have neither announced a connection between a possible problem with the motorcycle and the crash nor released formal details of the accident or investigation.

Works

* * * * *

Notes

References

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ash, Kevin Motorcycle journalists British motoring journalists The Daily Telegraph people Motorcycle road incident deaths Road incident deaths in South Africa 1959 births 2013 deaths People from Ilford People educated at Ipswich School Alumni of Imperial College London 20th-century English businesspeople