Kevin "The Mule" Burkhardt
November 23, 1969 - September 26, 2012
Brit Iron Rebels # 299
On September 26, 2012, the Brit Iron Rebels lost another member, Kevin Burkhardt (Mule). The following represent words of remembrance for Kevin from family, friends and fellow Club members:
Kevin loved punk music. The Clash was his favorite. He was part of that 80's punk rock scene but in a band geek kind of way. He was a trombone player and played with many groups and people. He got to play with BB King once! He was also in a band here in Cincinnati for a while. He played many blues jams. He also loved to play the guitar and was a moderator for the Fender Forum for many years. Our son's name is Leo after Leo Fender.
During his high school years, he was given the nickname Spazz because he was a little crazy. A few years down the road, he met some friends that rode horses and he started riding with them. He rode a couple of mules and he loved them. He actually owned a mule for a while named Ugh. He started using the "kevinthemule" e-mail and that is about the time that he started looking at Triumphs. The BIR folks are the only ones that know him as "The Mule" and it is because he used it on the BIR forum and it stuck.
Kevin loved to shoot guns (he was an awesome shot), go fly fishing, ride rollercoasters, watch movies (I think that he has seen every movie made... seriously), watch TV and hang around a good campfire. Most of all, he loved to ride his Bonny. It is sad that he got into this so late in his life. He only started riding three years ago. He rode like a grandpa and scared the daylights out of me but he started getting pretty good there for a while.
Kevin was so proud to be involved in the BIR (#299). We have so many t-shirts, patches and stuff that displays how proud he was to be a member. I hope that #299 can be "retired" and that it will always be his number.
I knew Kevin “The Mule” Burkhardt as a very intelligent and humorous man that loved his Triumph and being a Brit Iron Rebel. He loved classic punk rock music and Fender guitars and was very well versed in their history. He loved his wife Holly and son Leo and their pets above all else.
Kevin visited me and stayed at my place on two occasions in 2010. The first was in May for Billetproof. We left with a group of my local friends and we took to Highway 12 through the Irish Hills of southern Michigan. Although we tend to run faster than we should Kevin hung in there and stayed with us the whole way or caught up to us when we stopped. He was somewhat new to motorcycles and had a pace that was comfortable for him- I think we pushed him outside that comfort zone at times but he was always a good sport about it. We met up with several other BIR in Ypsilanti and had a good time. Kevin was articulate and very sociable and fell in with my friends quickly.
Kevin returned to Michigan in the fall of the same year for a big party we throw up here. He had a great time and made many new friends.
I’m thankful for these times with Kevin. I wish there could have been many more. RIP Kevin “The Mule” Burkhardt
May he rest in peace.
Tannis
“Tan-Dawg” Watson
BIR #78
I only met Kevin once, this past May, when he, Zap & I went riding the Triple Nickel up in Buckeye country. I think he was in a lot of pain, vented by his biting sense of dry humor, but he rode quite a ways and enjoyed it. He'd tell us to go on ahead, he'd ride his own ride. I remember seeing him recede calmly in my left bar-end on Saturday morning as we rode past a field of wildflowers.
At one point Zap & I were flying around coal trucks, passing on a double yellow into blind curves repeatedly; soon we realized we were no longer on the 555. We must've missed a turnoff sign. We pulled up to hardware store that sold rabbits and waited a while for Kevin. He never showed.
We took off back up the road, found the correct turnoff, and burnt around the bends.
Then suddenly, just outside the apex of a gravel-strewn decreasing radius turn lay a pretty old whitewashed farmhouse, bounded by neck-high grass, shaded by a gargantuan 400-some hundred year old oak. Kevin was sitting underneath it, still wearing his white 3/4 helmet w/ the Lowbrow stickers on it, with this serene look of contentment that soon turned into the biggest shit-eating "How the hell did I do that???" grin.
We all started howling laughing and about pissed ourselves. Tortoise & the Hare, and all that. After we shot the shit for a while he said "You guys ride on ahead, I'll catch up." And he sat back down under that tree, tired and in pain but happy and alive in the moment, the play of sun and shadow dancing around him.
And that's how I'm gonna choose to remember him, waiting under that oak for us all to ride by and share a laugh.
Ride on Kevin.
Jason
Graham
BIR# 337
