I hate writing this post but it feels necessary, so here we go.
As many of you know, my friend Evans Brasfield (the editor-in-chief of Motorcycle.com) was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident while on a motorcycle this September. His wonderful wife has had much more important problems to deal with but she asked me if I would help find new homes for his motorcycles and obviously I was honored to help. So I’m posting here to spread the word and help Evans’ family in a small way.
If you are not interested in the bikes but would like to help his family, please consider donating to this GoFundMe organized by the Motorcycle.com team.
I first met Evans years ago at a small industry event at Beach Moto. I had just started Bike-urious and no one knew who I was. I asked Evans a few questions about trying to break into the industry, and though I’m sure he’s been bothered by lots of other people with similar questions over the years, he was incredibly sincere and generous with his time. I’ll never forget it.
Randomly seeing Evans in Colorado a day after the BMW R18 Transcontinental launch.
Over the years I had the pleasure of seeing Evans at several motorcycle events and press launches and there was always one constant – as much as he loved motorcycles, he loved his family more. He was always so proud of his kids, never hesitating to share stories of their achievements with me and never failing to make time for them when they reached out to him, no matter how busy he was at work. It’s something I truly grew to appreciate about Evans as I got older: a lot of us may have had kids but press launches could be excused as a way to act a bunch younger and blow off some steam with your buds. For Evans, family was always the priority.
Everyone would be lucky to have a father like him.
He also had the quintessential sense of dad humor which would always elicit some combination of a laugh or a groan. Last year Evans asked me to join him as a guest reviewer for a travel story in South Dakota with Motorcycle.com. One day he was getting beauty shots of the bikes while the rest of us were having a lunch break and he quipped that he was “outstanding in his field“.
I’m really going to miss Evans, and the motorcycling world as I know it is far worse without him. So when his wife Karin asked if I would be able to help with his bikes, I immediately said yes even though I get a little depressed each time I look at these bikes at the shop. If you know someone looking for either of these bikes, please pass it along. Thankfully, both have already met reserve so they will sell:
2021 Kawasaki KLX300 – Evans bought this out of Kawi’s test fleet after being inspired by the fact that one of his daughters wanted to learn how to ride in the dirt. He transformed the little dual sport into a lightweight adventure bike and further equipped the bike in Part II of the series before taking it on the 2022 LA-Barstow to Vegas.
2019 KTM 790 Duke – Evans fell in love with this bike after reviewing it and he bought it for himself. He documented his upgrade journey to turn it into a “790 Duke R” as well as his efforts to refocus on track riding here.
I hope someone will continue to enjoy these bikes the way Evans would have wanted. Thanks for reading, and remember to cherish your friends.