Kevin Robinson, Soaring BMX Star, Dies at 45

Kevin Robinson, a BMX freestyle star who in 2006 became the first known rider to land a double flair — a double back flip with a half twist that many other BMX riders considered impossible — and who set world records by soaring 27 feet above a ramp and back-flipping 84 feet on his bicycle, died on Dec. 9 in Barrington, R.I. He was 45.

The cause was a stroke, his friend Scott Moroney said.

During his 25 years as a professional rider, Robinson, widely known as K-Rob, consistently pushed the boundaries of BMX freestyle, in which athletes perform intricate, high-flying stunts on minute bicycles with different obstacles. He specialized in riding ramps and strove to go higher and farther than other riders. It was a process that he said was more deliberate than some thought.

“It’s a matter of repetition and just doing it over and over again to make yourself comfortable with it,” he said in one televised interview.

Repetition was the key to landing the double flair. In a TEDx talk in 2016, Robinson said that he “became fixated on it,” then spent three years and endured multiple injuries trying to land the trick. The struggle, he said, did not discourage him.

“I embrace failure,” Robinson said. “I fail all the time and I’m proud of it. Because that’s how I learn.”

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Robinson introduced the double flair at the X Games in 2006.

“I don’t care if it’s midnight and the lights are off and everybody’s gone, I’ll still be on the ramp trying,” he told ESPN before his first attempt.

He landed the trick, then was mobbed by his fellow riders. It earned him a gold medal, one of three medals he won at that X Games.

Robinson’s indomitable approach helped with his two world records. In Central Park in 2008 he broke the record for highest air, which had been set at 26½ feet by the BMX superstar Mat Hoffman. After several unsuccessful attempts, some of which ended in crashes, he rolled down a 60-foot-tall ramp, reaching speeds up to 45 miles per hour, and launched 27 feet out of a vertiginous quarterpipe ramp.

In 2016 Robinson came out of retirement to break another record, the Guinness World Record for longest power-assisted bicycle flip, in Providence, R.I., his hometown. The record was 64 feet; Robinson had to be towed by an all-terrain vehicle to achieve the speed needed to make the jump.

On the first try he flung a back flip over the 84-foot gap, but bounced on the flat top of the landing ramp and slammed into the ground, drawing gasps from the audience. He soon tried again and landed the jump flawlessly.

His records have yet to be officially broken.

Kevin Michael Robinson, the youngest of seven children, was born to Howard Robinson and the former Carole Forsmark in Providence on Dec. 19, 1971. His father was an electrical utility worker. He learned to sew as a boy and often worked at his brother Ken’s nautical upholstery business in Barrington.

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After graduating from East Providence High School in 1989 he began riding on the pro team for Hoffman Bikes, Mat Hoffman’s company, in the early 1990s. His other sponsors included Red Bull and Target. He retired from competition in 2013, after more than 120 podium appearances by his count and 10 medals, four of them gold, at ESPN’s X Games.

After retiring, Robinson was a commentator on ESPN; founded the K-Rob Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to financially supporting underprivileged young athletes; and became a motivational speaker. He and his wife, the former Robin Adams, also started a company that makes durable padded pants for young athletes.

In addition to his wife, whom he married in 2004 and with whom he lived in Barrington, he is survived by their daughter, Shaye Robinson; two sons, Kevin Jr. and Riley; his parents; four brothers, Kenneth, Richard, David and Daniel; and two sisters, Kathleen Fontes and Leigh-Anne Rainey.

During his TEDx talk, Robinson noted the toll that BMX had taken on his body, including 45 orthopedic operations, 22 broken bones and a hip replacement. But, he said, moments like landing the double flair were worth the injuries.

“That is what we live for,” he said. “The minute I felt my tires hit the ramp, the minute I knew that I was riding away, there’s no amount of money, there’s no trophy, there’s no award that can take the place of that moment.

“Other than the birth of my kids and marrying my wife, that’s one of the best moments of my life.”