"Here" was a 40-acre ranch near Lake
George, Colo., that belongs to Tom and Shelley Hedwall. Tom and his son Dustin are both world-class trials riders. Dustin, a 26-year-old whom I’ve known as Dusty since he was a little kid, is among the top trials riders in the U.S. Tom, his 53-year- old father, still competes and brings home trophies for his wins in senior competitions. We’d been at the ranch for about 90 min-
utes, during which time we’d seen Tom and Dusty do all kinds of mind-boggling things on motorcycles. They’d hopped, blipped, wheelied and splattered their way up and over boulders, ledges and stumps. They’d demonstrated the kind of balance that you normally only see on a tightrope. They wowed us for nearly an hour, leaving us shaking our heads in disbelief over and over again. After their trials
demo we moved down to the bottom of their property. The father and son had built their own endurocross track, a crazy obstacle course comprised of loose logs, boulders and other gnarly impediments that, if encountered on a trail, would cause most motorcyclists to turn around and head for home. Endurocross, Tom explained to us, was a relatively new motorsport where competitors race motocross bikes over and through various obstacles. Forget about finesse; in enduro- cross the first one to the finish line wins. After doing several laps for us, Tom and
Dusty stopped to answer questions. I asked Dusty to share a story he’d told me before about the difficulty he had making the switch from trials to endurocross. It was at this point that Marty had his ah-ha moment. “Trials is all about balance and finesse,”
Dusty shared. “I’ve been riding trials since I was a little kid, so the mechanics and
82 BMW OWNERS NEWS March 2016
mindset of that type of riding are deeply ingrained in me. The thing is, the approach to riding that made me successful in trials competition was holding me back in endu- rocross. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake all those years of riding with a trials mentality, where I was focused on finesse, choosing the perfect line, and never putting my foot down.” Dusty went on. “I ended up working
with a coach who helped me change my habits and instincts in order to get faster at endurocross, and now I’m finishing higher in the competitions. But I couldn’t have gotten there without some help. I needed someone who could help me retrain my brain to operate with a new way of thinking.”
recently applied to go on an MRP Relief Ride for the chance to do some riding in the backcountry of Colorado on a BMW GS. Seeing Marty’s GS, Travis struck up a conversation with him and encouraged Marty to apply to go on one of our rides. Marty applied, and now here we all were. “It was like a giant light bulb came on in
my head while I listened to Dusty share his story,” Marty told me. “I need to retrain my brain. The mindset that served me well in the Army and in combat isn’t working for me now. It’s not working for my job, or for my marriage. I need a new mindset.” That night back at the lodge, other par-
ticipants made similar comments. They shared how difficult it sometimes was to engage in normal life with spouses, kids,
I had hoped that Dusty’s story might
prove relevant to some of the vets, and apparently it resonated with Marty. Retired from the Army after 20 years, Marty was now working in a job with the Transporta- tion Security Administration (TSA) that he’d told the group was incredibly stressful. The proud owner of a beautiful 2015 BMW R 1200 GS, Marty learned about MRP when he met a fellow veteran named Travis at a gas station. Travis, a heavily tattooed Harley rider who’s still in the Army, had
neighbors and coworkers. War had left its physical scars on them, but it had left men- tal and emotional scars as well. While sometimes it seemed that the rest of the world expected they should be able to just jump right back into civilian life back home, it wasn’t that easy. How do you make the transition to being a patient and loving father and husband after so many years of being a battle-hardened warrior who thrived on conflict and intensity? How do you make small talk with a neighbor with
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