WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY THINKING?!
by Dallas Hageman
There is no possible way I get to do this... is there? That
thought was rushing through my head when Thunder Roads
Colorado approached me to be a contributing writer for their
magazine; a magazine that I have been glued to for years
and always await with eager anticipation for a new issue
every month. I am however getting ahead of myself a little,
so let me start at the beginning.
My name is Dallas Hageman and I am a bike-aholic.
Seriously. Like, code red. I contracted a sickness that, when
infecting your body never goes away. It stays in your blood
stream until the day you waltz through the pearly gates and
that sickness is called motorcycles. I have got it and chances
are, since you are reading this in one of the best motorcycle
magazines around, you’ve got it too. The only cure is riding,
and LOTS of it.
Now I would love to tell you that I have been riding ever
since I was in diapers but that would be a bald faced lie. In
fact, for whatever reason, I never gave motorcycles a second
thought until after my divorce. It was a time of change in my
life—the good kind, but I was going through a phase of the
blues. I remember one day driving down a local road and
seeing a motorcyclist riding past me with a grin on his face
that spanned ear to ear. He looked like he was having the
time of his life. No cares, no worries and no commitments,
which was very much unlike myself at that point in my life.
“What the heck” I thought to myself, “If a motorcycle can do
that for him, why couldn’t it do the same for me? I could use
a change!” and thus began my love affair with motorcycles.
The next day I went to the local motorcycle dealer and put
down all the money in my account on a starter bike. Want to
know the ironic part? Since I was unlicensed, I couldn’t even
ride it home, and my house was literally five miles away! The
new scoot was delivered that same day and I sat on it in the
12 Thunder Roads Magazine® Colorado
garage for nearly four hours, just looking at it. Daydreaming
about what this new purchase meant for my life. Where it
would take me and what it would change. Little did I know
that the change coming would alter my life forever. I took the
riding class a week later and after the first three hundred feet
on the new ride, I was hooked—for life.
Over the course of the next several years I did nothing but
ride. And I mean NOTHING. Sure I had to work but the second
that whistle blew, I was out. I scoured maps and towns, taking
notes and adding up the miles whenever the chance arose.
Some trips were planned and others were spontaneous but
all of them had one thing in common, miles. The miles began
to add up, a lot. So much so that I had to start purchasing
new motorcycles just to ensure reliability. Now once a few
miles were under my belt I learned of a motorcycle run to
September 2016
www.thunderroadscolorado.com