RESPLENDENT PASSAGES: Motorcycling Diaries in Soul Craft

Gregory Ormson was a Motorcycle Safety Foundation rider/coach for the State of Hawaii. He's motorcycled in India, around three Hawaiian islands, Canada, Mexico, and across the U.S. from Niagara Falls to Seattle and International Falls to Tucson.

He owns two show-winning motorcycles: a 2017 Royal Enfield Classic 500, and a teal/pearl Harley Davidson 2016 Road King Classic.

His favorite rides are Run to The Rez in San Carlos, Arizona; The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride (for men's health and prostate research and treatment), The Tomahawk, Wis., fall color run, The Rocky Point Rally, in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, and any of the Medicine Wheel Rides #MMIWC. See more motorcycling #MotorcyclingyogiG

Riding to the Mysterious Pyramid-Tombs of Arizona’s Outback

Full text of story below.

The specter of pyramids rising from the desert seems more Egyptian than Arizonan, and yet for more than 100 years, three pyramids holding the bones of Arizona leaders, explorers, and visionaries have dotted Arizona’s landscape.

I jumped on my Harley Davidson Road King to explore the backstories of people buried within, including Arizona’s first Governor, George P. Hunt, Hi Jolly, a camel herder, and Arizona’s first Congressional Representative Charles D. Poston.

Riders yearning to see tilted Americana or cruise the roads less traveled will find pyramids of masonry, quartz, fieldstone, basalt, petrified wood, mortar, and even fragments from an early Indigenous American structure. Visiting the pyramids will take about 8 hours of riding time, but plan more as you’ll want to explore historical sites and check out the flavor of local shops and restaurants.

Arizona’s desert is a place fitter for camels than people. It’s hard on riders and bikes, requiring frequent breaks for water and gas. Realistically, plan two days and pack your walking shoes. Starting in Phoenix, my pyramid trifecta began on Interstate 10 by going west for 140 miles through Arizona’s Outback to Quartzsite, about 250 miles east of Los Angeles and 82 miles north of Yuma.

Quartzsite is dotted with RV parks catering to explorers and bikers strolling the streets and sidewalks of Quartzsite with dreams, wanderlust, and a thirst for adventure. The same characteristics brought Hi Jolly from Greece to Arizona in 1857.

Hadji Ali, as he was known in his native Syria, was recruited to train U.S. troops in camel riding and serve the newly established American Camel Corps (1856-1866).… read more...

This Bike is On Fire – shown in 5 magazines, 4 newspapers, 2 alumni publications and several blogs. You can rent it . . . read on.

A guy from Alaska wanting to rent my Harley Davidson Road King through Riders-Share asked about my “famous” bike. That famous bike is Priscilla.

Here is Priscilla, pictured in this month’s issue of American Rider in magazine stories I’ve written for Thunder Press, American Rider, OM Yoga Magazine, The Taj Mahal Review, and AZ Rider News; Priscilla has also been in newspaper stories for: The Green Bay Press Gazette, The Wausau Daily Herald, The Mesa Tribune, and The Mining Journal; two University Alumni Publications (University of Wisconsin La Crosse, and Northern Michigan University), along with three online publications: Yahoo.com, The Phoenix Indian Center, and the Riders’ Share Blog.

Video link from my friend Ram Hernandez riding this bike

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ram Hernandez (@ram7861)

Here is my QRCode to rent this bike through Riders Share. Follow this code for a discount.

HARLEY-DAVIDSON TOURING ROAD KING (TWO TONE) for rent near Mesa, AZ – Riders Share (riders-share.com)… read more...

Pyramid Scheme: a date with Arizona’s mysterious pyramid tombs.

Hello Motorcycle friends. American Rider Magazine, the journal of the International Big Twin community, has published my story and many photos of an incredible mototour to Arizona’s three pyramid-tombs. These pyramid-tombs, like the people inside, are mysterious, memorable, majestic, and located in Quartzsite, Florence, and Papago Park in Phoenix. The digital version of American Rider is available at American Rider (dot) com; you’ll see great stops along the way: Dateland Travel Oasis off I-8, The Readers’ Oasis Bookstore in Quartzsite, and The River Bottom Grill on why 79 between Phoenix and Tucson.

The specter of pyramids rising from the desert seems more Egyptian than Arizonan, yet for more than 100 years, three pyramids holding the bones of Arizona leaders, explorers, and visionaries have dotted the desert spaces of Arizona. And even though the desert is a place fitter for camels than people, I jumped on my Harley Davidson to visit these pyramid tombs which for Arizona’s first Governor, George P. Hunt in Phoenix, Hi Jolly the camel herder in Quartzite, and Charles D. Poston (Arizona’s first Congressional Representative) in Florence.

Riders yearning to see tilted Americana or cruise the roads less traveled will find unique memorials in these structures of masonry, quartz, fieldstone, basalt, petrified wood, and mortar, and in Poston, fragments from an early Indigenous American structure. Visiting all three will take about 8 hours of riding time, but if you giddy-up on the fast track, the trip can be done with one overnight stay. Since I live in the Phoenix area, my pyramid trifecta began on Interstate 10 by going west into Arizona’s Outback.… read more...

Protected: Honor on the Red Road in Arizona Apache Country: Run to The Rez 2024

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Motorcycling to Mexican Time and the Zen Sea, a finalist in the Rigel 2023 Writing Contest

Biking toward Mexico, jagged mountains framing both sides of Arizona’s Highway 85 are now in my mirror. Wind and heat push me forward to where it is not much of a leap for my Midwestern imagination to place me in a scene from an apocalyptic biker movie on a two-lane road headed into the heart of dust.

At the border wall, problematic for drug mules and Americans with criminal records trying to cross, the guards peer at my shiny wheels.

I’m neither criminal nor mule, but I’m wary of the gun-wielding guards; the mind-meld of television news depicts Mexico as dangerous, and at this wrecking wall I’m heating up like one of Dante’s eighth circle bolgers.

My motorcycle brothers and I cross the wall into Mexico, and our bikes are screaming to hell with America and our jobs, if we still got them, left behind us with our families—fathers, children without fathers, and desperate mothers trying to become younger in their old age. Will I ever cross the border back to America?

So this is Mexico?

There’s a lot of dust.

Dust eats away at my skin. The leather I wear makes every minute an inferno on the motorcycle. Heat explodes up my ass, creeping past crack and sack to pillage my spine and overburden my shoulders. But I am an adult, I am in Mexico, I have documents and a clean record; I can drink, buy drugs, or pay to make fantasies come true. I can also do none of that or get a ticket to take the pirate ship and sail into the mystic with tourists, eating as much shrimp and drinking as much Dos Equis XX lager as I can handle.… read more...

What’s In A Name? Run to the Rez 21

Run to the Rez is coming up this weekend. I’ll be there listening and hoping to find words to describe this rally and Veterans honor ride.

More than just a gathering, the four-day motorcycle rally, ‘Run to the Rez’ is also a mystery. Albert Einstein wrote of mystery, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He [sic] to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to consider and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

Absent an openness to awe, our lives inhabit a worn-out structure, we become dry bones baked in desert dust. And bereft of awe, especially now when we need it more than ever, our vision is compromised, and we cannot see or sense the remnants of an ancient past shivering down the branches and over the highways.

Energy drives that mystery and powers a seed to burst through the desert crust or volcanic rock in search of light. This energy steers the way at Run to the Rez.

Motorcycling among the Apache’s seven sacred mountains, it’s easy to recognize our finitude and smallness in the face of rugged geography. At the same time, when purple mountains majesty moves us, we sense our connectedness to something beyond singularity and smallness. It is material, it is mystical; it is breathtaking and breath-giving to the fire, to the ghost dancers, and to the riders Aho

Two-part Video and Written Review of KEMIMOTO’S Windshield Extender on a Honda Rebel and a Harley-Davidson Road King

(Discount code included) at the end of this post as KEMIMOTO is celebrating their 13th anniversary. Use AFF17 for 17% off no threshold discount on this $79 product.

KEMIMOTO’S Windshield Extender is a fantastic buy to reduce the wind blast to their forehead, stop the rain before it gets to your neck and chest, and keep the desert heat off your forehead. In these two videos, I show this product mounted on a narrow and small windshield for a Honda Rebel. Part II, completed in Arizona, shows the same extender on my Harley Davidson Road King.

Good things about this product – and a recommendation for improvement:

It absolutely cuts down on wind blast. This was important for my daughter who sits above the current windshield and the blast landed in her face. Even better, in Arizona where we ride in over 100 degrees nearly every day, it diminishes hot air to the face.
The hardware on this extender is very solid, I do not see it wearing out for a long time. This includes the connection to the windshield itself which is key. I will show you in the second video, and photos here, how the rubber pieces protect the windshield and hold the extender in place. I was traveling at 70mph, and they held solidly; the extender attached to the bike windshield without scratching it, and without shifting around when riding.
I love the ease and speed of installation and removal. Right out of the box I set it up in about 10 minutes with the two small hex wrenches included in the shipping package.

Sunburst Amber Fractions and A Hat Full of Rain

A magnetic north of the heart draws me back again. It’s all rain and wind in my beloved Midwest where dusk is augmented by a beautiful amber-orange sunset. It means fires are raging in the west and people are getting hurt.

I’m reading, Let It Be Told In A Single Breath, by Michigan poet Russell Thorburn. He prods me to take a slow, big breath before speaking. My yoga training opened the wisdom of this act, and now, I'll tell it in a single breath and in my northern tongue where the Ojibwe have influenced my wild outlook.


But my telling will be, as Emily Dickinson counseled, slant or in burnished red angle.


This slant tells of coffee and root beer, motorcycles, music, and slow-motion videos of grandchildren appearing ever so resilient in ligament and laughter. We’re all on a journey, delicate and mysterious, held in place perhaps by rubbery ligaments only.

This trip north has placed me back on sidewalks I traversed in my youth when a long-haired, three-piece rock band from Flint, Michigan sang of the Grand Funky Railroad Closer to Home. Aging in slow motion, I grow closer to home and deeply grateful as the years go by.

For a long time now, I’ve used music and prose to navigate my life: guitars, drums, banjos, fiddles, mandolins, and lyrics, like this favorite by Tom Waits, an important anthem to someone like me who sucks at Capitalism.

“Money’s just something you throw off the back of a train. Got a head full of lightning. A hat full of rain.

Check out my Royal Enfield with this day travel bag for motorcycle or bicycle

I’m convinced of a product’s worthiness when I see comparisons between two or more with similar features. I’ve been in the market for a day bag to mount on my Royal Enfield Bullet 500. There are lots of bags out there, but they never appealed to me.

I hadn’t found one that met my needs for convenience and ease of installation and removal. I hadn’t found one that was not overpriced. I hadn’t found one that looked as if it fit my bike until this one.

“MotorcyclingYogiG” is my handle, and I ride a motorcycle to yoga class which means I need to carry a mat, towels, and clothes. The right bag has to be sleek in appearance and yet roomy enough. It needs to attach and detach easily so that I can remove them when needed. The bags also must not sag in (like the leather bags on my Softail) which I previously owned. This one fits all categories; it attached easily with four small zip ties, and I set it on top of a rolled-up yoga mat over the back fender. This protects the paint, and when I sit on the spring seat, it holds the yoga mat in place.

This KEMIMOTO day bag fits my needs. It’s designed smartly with protected zippers and Oxford fabric (a sturdy form of polyester and nylon) the single white reflective stripe on the side, the angled front panel to lessen wind resistance, the zippered inner pockets for cell phones and other valuables that must be protected, the orange semi-hard panel to keep the bags from sinking inward, the hooks placed smartly on the panel facing the wheel for convenient attachment to the frame, and the fabric loops on the bag’s outside for quick access to tools or other accessories.… read more...

RESPLENDENT PASSAGES: Motorcycling to a Yoga Festival, Diaries in Soul Craft

Motorcycling many miles is one way to participate in a mythic American grand narrative. It looks like a story of freedom and independence, but that is not real. If you think freedom and independence is real, then try being truly free and independent and see what happens.

The grander narrative, one animating dreamers everywhere, is change, and the will to leave a better world for our children and children’s children. I’ll embody that mantle anytime and do my part to create that story. I choose to bear this weight even if my shoulders are heavy and draped with an old story of Stoll and yoke.

On my bike, handlebars into the wind, riding above the suck, bang, and blow of explosions under me, I’ve searched out places of vision and intent.

Riding to Wyoming’s Red Desert — from Upper Michigan — for a three-day vision quest, my guide explained how and why I had to cleanse myself for unseen encounters. He did not say it, but I learned that if I were not truly prepared and if my ego was not set aside and my aggression diminished, the crows would pick me apart and drive me far away from their land. Wyoming’s Red Desert is like Hawaii that way. “If you are a prick,” a guy in Hawaii told me, “The island will kick you off.”

Without preparation and a willingness to listen and learn from a guide; without training and preparation to lay down an honest oath and true intention, I would not have heard an ancient ocean singing its song beneath the hardened desert sand in Wyoming; I would not have learned how I was to hold the bowl; I would not have learned that in Hawaii, gardens and graves grow up through lava and bend toward the ocean; I would not have learned from a geologist in Upper Michigan — based on gouges in the dark rock — which way the glacier went; I would not have learned where, in the far north, dragon and damselflies emerge, crawl, hatch and take flight for their brief, acrobatic life.

RIDE this Royal Enfield. Available through Riders Share Motorcycle Rental for Old Skool Riding Adventure

Rent this classic Royal Enfield 500 Bullet from me, a Riders Share Power Owner, through Riders Share, the AirB&B of motorcycle rental. Link at the end of this post.

Coupon available with this code.

Contact me with the link below to meet “Biggie,” a show-winner in the cruiser category at Superstition Harley Davidson 2021 BYO bike show. It’s clean and in good condition, modified with/ custom paint of the RE traditional logo on the tank repping Britain’s WWI Enfield .303 rifle.

Royal Enfield motorcycles are showing up in the US and it’s not a surprise as they are the world’s highest-selling volume motorcycle. Most people think mine is an old school Triumph; but it’s an India-made Bullet 500 Classic Enfield that came off the line in January 2017. I first rode a bullet 40 years ago in India and now you can take my Classic Bullet 500 for a spin. The bike is great fun, easy to handle, and sharp.

My last renter wrote, “Bike is in pristine condition.” The thump makes you feel like you’re on the original English-made 54 Bullet. If you are 6′ or taller you’ll feel cramped, but you can still do it. Custom paint with the Enfield traditional RE logo on the tank and the representation of the WWI Enfield .303 rifle; a design tying into the history of Royal Enfield as a munition’s provider in Redfield, England, pre-WWI, the number 5, a new seat, and mirror.

Late 70’s in New Delhi, I rode a bike like this India produced 54. It’s essentially the same frame I ride today.

On the Turning of 2023

On the turning of 2023, I’m saving that which is worth saving: the worn memory of pine trees and family, the old song where the days are longer and nights are stronger, the heirloom scrapbook with imprints of ancestors in cracked bindings and faded pages.

It’s easy to forget such things as life slip slides away – ever so briskly now – and that’s when I recall a story from Henry Shukman’s One Blade of Grass: A Zen Memoir, and his writing that after months in earnest meditation he heard a phrase ring out from the silence, “Everything is going to be alright.”

I want to use this as a patch for the year approaching, as 2024’s moorings appear tilted and rattled.

So I tell I . . .

Stop.
Look.
Listen.
Darn and patch.

It is all alright, it always has been, and it always will be.FullSizeRender

Feliz Año Nuevo… read more...

An Arizona Motorcycle Ride on the Road Less Traveled in Flavor-Flaves of Dirty and Sweet

Motorcycle riders focus on the tangible elements or the things we can plan, see, and do. As creatures of habit, we take the main road, but any road will get us out the door where we may discover that all roads – even the pock-marked and dusty trails that we curse in between the splatter of bugs on our windshield and our face – lead to a rally, an event, a new road, or new discovery.

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood . . .

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference.”

The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

The road less traveled is the one you don’t see at first; the path we discover through a missed turn or a mental stumble. It beckons, so we follow it and rub up against the intangible or unseen. I look for these roads, and when I find them, open the throat of my bike and the heart in my body to engage my Harley-Davidson’s six-geared drama. Its ups and downs are programable, but the stage is never predictable as I ride a highway drama unfolding like a multi-act show that includes millions – other riders – seen and unseen, leather-clad bodies of light and life.

They are wearing hats this November 11, both veterans and non-veterans, musicians and non-musicians, bikers and non-bikers, an inclusive and often disruptive congress of partiers riding a rumble seat that was built with muscle and sweat. Engineers did their work first, finding a way to harness the friction of rubber and metal and the best way to direct the explosive energy of gas and fire.… read more...

Tour Arizona on a Harley, rent from riders Share – the motorcycle Air B&B

use this coupon for a discount on me

I’m a former MSF rider coach for Hawaii and a motorcycle journalist published in Thunder Press, American Rider, HOG Magazine (now The Enthusiast), and AZ Rider Southwest. I taught yoga for bikers – at Superstition Harley Davidson in Arizona – focusing on hips, back, neck, and remaining at ease in the saddle for lifelong riding.

You can rent either of my show-winning bikes on the Rider’s Share platform (link below). Check out either the 2016 teal and pearl Road King which has been pictured in six magazines, 4 newspapers, & two university magazines. My bike is known as the Bel Aire Model; and looking at this 57 Chevy, you can see why.

Or you can rent the 2017 Royal Enfield Bullet 500.

See my tour offering (the pyramid tombs of Arizona), on my Riders Share page, and read any of the 5 star reviews like the new one below (October 2023) from Larry in Illinois.

I enjoy touring, the biker community, and our mutual love of wind therapy. We ride year-round in Arizona. Find motorcycle and other info about my writing on motorcycling, yoga, music, and travel on my Website, https://gregoryormson.com select the motorcycling tab to learn more. IG @motorcyclingyogig

Ride On!

Larry

Illinois

2016 HARLEY-DAVIDSON TOURING ROAD KING (TWO TONE)

The bike ran in tip-top shape.

From the Riders Share Blog: Six Gears and a Mountain Ride, mechanical breakdown and communication rescue A Riders Share Owner’s Story By Gregory Ormson, Mesa, Arizona

Nobody wants a mechanical breakdown – ever! But think of your bike out with a renter and he is a thousand miles away. Worse, the nearest repair facility is over 100 miles away; your bike and renter are stranded on a remote mountain road. You absolutely don’t want a breakdown then, but that’s what happened to my Riders Share client.

Jose rented my bike for a nine-day trip and was joined for a Southwest U.S. tour by his group of longtime friends. They had created their own bikers club and had taken group trips before. As they took off from the Phoenix east valley on their trip, I watched their social media posts and they looked happy as they logged miles and smiles. Jose was posting maps on Instagram. In one, bikers in leather lay down on their backs and carved snow angels high in the Rockies – something people in Guadalajara, Mexico don’t do.

On the sixth day, my phone lit up with a call from Mexico. It was Jose, stranded in mid-Colorado, deep in a canyon. Through a crackling and intermittent connection, I understood Jose to say there was a problem with my shifter. He was going to call Rider’s Share as the bike was inoperable. An engineer by trade, he accepted that mechanical problems do happen, metal parts give out, and he was gracious about the situation. The most important thing is that he and his wife were okay. From then on, we kept in contact by text. And yes, it’s worrisome when something like this happens.

Not long after I spoke with Jose, Kendra from Rider’s Share called and we discussed my bike’s situation.… read more...

Utah’s Old Skool Motorcycle Rally in Panguitch, UT. See my preview in June’s American Rider Magazine

Not long ago, a guy from Alaska called and said he wanted to rent my Harley Davidson Road King, asking about my “famous” bike “Priscilla.” I said it was available and he was in. She is pictured in this month’s issue of American Rider accompanying the rally preview

BIKERS, all I can say is that you ought to go up to Panguitch, Utah to do the rally. You won’t regret it, cause it’s hot and it’s cool. . . . back to Priscilla.

Priscilla has been pictured in magazine stories I’ve written for Thunder Press, American Rider, OM Yoga Magazine, The Taj Mahal Review, and AZ Rider News; Priscilla has also been in newspaper stories for: The Green Bay Press Gazette, The Wausau Daily Herald, The Mesa Tribune, and The Mining Journal; two University Alumni Publications (University of Wisconsin La Crosse, and Northern Michigan University), three online publications: Yahoo.com, The Phoenix Indian Center, and the Riders’ Share Blog.

Check out her latest pose here in June’s American Rider from a photo I took by the red rocks of the Grand Canyon’s North entrance.

See link below to rent this bike on the RIDERS SHARE platform (the Airbnb of motorcycling).

AND keep

scrolling for photos from the 2023 rally

Yoga Magazine, UK

Thunder Press (at the time) now American Rider

The Mining Journal, Marquette, Michigan

OM Yoga Magazine, UK

The Taj Mahal Review, Allahabad, India

Northern Michigan University Alumni Magazine

Yoga Magazine, UK

UW La Crosse, Alumni Magazine The Lantern

American Rider Magazine

The MESA Tribune, Mesa, AZ

And a cool video link from my friend Ram Hernandez riding this bike

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ram Hernandez (@ram7861)

Here is my link to rent this bike through Riders Share

HARLEY-DAVIDSON TOURING ROAD KING (TWO TONE) for rent near Mesa, AZ – Riders Share (riders-share.com)… read more...

Six Gears and a Mountain Ride – Mechanical Breakdown and Communication Rescue

A Riders Share Owner’s Story

Nobody wants a mechanical breakdown – ever! But think of your bike out with a renter and he is a thousand miles out on the ride. Worse, the nearest repair facility is over 100 miles away; and your bike and renter are stranded on a remote mountain road. You don’t want a breakdown then, but that’s what happened to Jose, my Riders Share client.

Jose rented my bike for a nine-day trip and was joined for a Southwest U.S. tour by his group of longtime friends. They had created their own bikers club and had taken group trips before. As they took off from the Phoenix east valley, I watched their social media posts and adventured out through Arizona, New Mexico, and into Colorado, logging miles and smiles. Jose was posting maps on Instagram, and on one I saw bikers in leather lay down on their backs to carve snow angels high in the Rockies – something people in Guadalajara, Mexico don’t do.

On the sixth day, my phone lit up with a call from Mexico. It was Jose, stranded in mid-Colorado, deep in a canyon. Through a crackling and intermittent connection, I understood Jose to say there was a problem with the shifter. He was going to call Rider’s Share as the bike was inoperable. An engineer by trade, he accepted that mechanical problems do happen, metal parts give out, and he was gracious about the situation. The most important thing is that he and his wife were okay. From then on, we kept in contact by text.… read more...

Pyramid Tomb Tour of Arizona: mysterious, memorable, and majestic

Hello Motorcycle friends. American Rider Magazine (journal of the International Big Twin community) will soon publish my story and many photos of an incredible mototour to Arizona’s three pyramid-tombs. They’re mysterious, memorable, and majestic – like the people buried inside – and they’re located in Quartzsite, Florence, and Papago Park in Phoenix. You can check out the digital version of American Rider coming up in November where you’ll also find a bonus Youtube video of the “Naked Bookseller,” in Quartzsite, or better yet, get a subscription to the magazine to read about my tour and great stops along the way: Dateland, The Readers’ Oasis Bookstore, and The River Bottom Biker Grill).

More information coming soon in American Rider.

Excerpt, A Motorcycle Ride in Mexico

Dust eats away at my skin. The leather I wear makes every minute an inferno on the motorcycle. Heat explodes up my ass, creeping past crack and sack to pillage my spine and overburden my shoulders. But I am an adult, I am in Mexico, I have documents and a clean record; I can drink, buy drugs, or pay to make fantasies come true. I can also do none of that, or get a ticket to take the pirate ship and sail into the mystic with tourists, eating as much shrimp and drinking as much Dos Equis XX lager as I can handle while daydreaming in the Zen of a blue sea.

Deeper and deeper in a broken territory I’m riding a two-wheeled track called risk. It’s as if reality stalls and the motorcycle dances in time with the dazzling sun of Mexico. With eyes to see, anyone looking around would swear Salvador Dali painted the street where bar balconies, groaning under the weight of heavy bikers, bows like snow-covered branches. On the third floor of the Iguana Banana, above the balcony facing the Malecon, a band is kicking out a version of Bowie’s “Five Years.” Inside the Iguana, I sing along with them, “A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest, and a queer threw up at the sight of that.”

In tune or out of tune, nobody cared, as the thump-thump of Evolutions announced the schedules be damned ‘cause the party’s on, and ripe are the two-legged coyotes primed for this biker party happening everywhere. One, in fringed buckskin and patches, says he’s from the land of Geronimo.… read more...

Rocky Point Rally – Motorcycling in Mexico as reported in American Rider Magazine January, 2022

It’s almost as if reality stalls and the motorcycle dances in time with the dazzling sun of Mexico. With eyes to see, anyone looking around would swear Salvador Dali painted the street where bar balconies, groaning under the weight of heavy bikers, hang low like winter branches and the thump-thump of Big Twins announce ‘schedules be damned’ the party is on.

Get your issue of American Rider Magazine where you can learn: the technical aspects of motorcycles and motorcycling, racing and race events, homages to motorcycling and its history, insight on the bike-building profession, riding equipment, and a lot more. Reading any article over the last year, I’ve wanted to get out and do it. Isn’t that the purpose of writing about motorcycling?

Click on these photos below for my article in American Rider on the November 2022 Rocky Point Rally in Mexico.

All photos by Oliver Touron. Big kudos to American Rider Ed. Kevin Duke

Rocky Point Rally next year anyone?… read more...

The Song of the Harley and Yoga’s Song. Listen in to Amanda Kingsmith’s podcast episode this week on Mastering the Business of Yoga as we discuss motorcycling, yoga, stress, and more

Mastering the Business of Yoga #mbom is an entrepreneurial podcast created by Amanda Kingsmith, a yogi-businesswoman who’s conducted interviews with yoga practitioners and business owners for over five years now. Great tips from yogi business owners big and small are curated by Amanda and broadcast on M. B. OM, her podcast. This week, I am Amanda’s guest, so tune in to hear about teaching at the interlap between motorcycling and yoga. At the end, I read a few paragraphs from my book, YOGA SONG.

FROM AMANDA: This week on the podcast, I am joined by Gregory Ormson. Gregory is a yoga teacher, an author, and a passionate biker. His yoga writing is published in 23 national and international magazines, journals, and online sites with over 5 million dedicated readers. Some of his articles have logged nearly 400,000 views and have been shared over 7000 times.

Known as #motorcyclingyogig, Gregory has taught yoga for bikers since 2017 at Superstition Harley Davidson, the only dealership in the country to hold yoga classes in its facility. Gregory first came on the podcast back in 2017 to share his business and unique niche with listeners, and he is back today to share how things have been going, what he’s learned through his career, as well as a little bit about his new book, Yoga Song. Enjoy!

Discussed in this episode:

Offering yoga for bikers in a Harley Davidson store for over five years
How Gregory markets his classes to other people
Aiming for an inspirational teaching strategy in yoga
Learning to relax in the midst of stressful situations
Important business lessons Gregory has learned over the years
Having a genuine desire to get to know people and understand them
Learning more about Gregory’s book, Yoga Song
And much more… Here is the episode!

AMERICAN RIDER MAGAZINE, covering the diverse motorcycling world with style and substance

American Rider Magazine, covering motorcycling with style and substance. Two of my friends have really taken the motorcycle writing and photo game to a high level. Pictured on the cover is Oliver Touron, photomotojournalist extraordinaire, sitting on a Harley in front of the Eiffel Tower. Oliver wrote the lead story, “American Rider: Riding Harleys in France” It’s a fitting theme becau

se his wife Shelly is the American in Paris. The photo shows her on the roundabout in front of the Arc de Triomphe on Champs-Elysees avenue. After reading Oliver’s story, I wanted to motorcycle through France.

Another friend, Gary Kos Mraz of Sedona, filled out the frame to Hollywood’s narrative of Route 66 as a mystical wonderland. His story, “The Folklore, The Forlorn, and the Future,” fleshes-out the Seligman to Kingman route on the Mother Road 66. It’s a great story with lots of unique detail that I recommend for any Arizona rider. Gary’s story makes me want to get on the bike to ride, write, and photograph.

In case you weren’t paying attention, this magazine underwent a name change from Thunder Press to American Rider back in May. Along with the change of handle, the format segued from newsprint to newstand quality magazine stock. Among other things, the photos suddenly popped, and if you ask me, the writing is solid.

But it’s not only a magazine of stories and tours for those who love that, it also covers technical aspects of motorcycles and motorcycling, racing and race events, homage to history and the bike building profession, equipment, and a lot more.

Tavelpictalogue May 17 – Sept 23

Going: Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan. Returning: Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, NM, and AZ.

A Rider, a Monster Truck, and a Friends Last Ride

In May, before leaving Arizona on a 6000 mile summer trip, I bought a toy “monster truck.” I planned to use it in commemoration for a deceased friend when a few of us would meet near Lake Superior.

Our friend loathed monster trucks and saw them as an American hyper-egoistic association with vehicles and a nutty obsession for more and more engine power and size. He thought of monster trucks as the perfect symbols of aggression, senseless destruction, and waste.

A lot of our travel this summer was on the Interstate system. I realize I didn’t enjoy it. The Interstate is no longer a gateway to the great American road adventure; it’s more like the great American road nightmare where games of bravado are played out by aggressive drivers with big rigs that come dangerously close to disaster on a regular basis.

In our commemoration for P.R., we talked about his love for travel and decided that I should take him for a final ride back to Arizona in the green toy monster truck. There were no hard and fast rules about what I was to do with P’s spirit riding along, but a loose suggestion that I might leave him (and the monster truck) in some public place where anyone could pick him up and take him on a continuing journey.

I thought I’d leave it (him) somewhere along Route 66, a road symbolizing the lost optimism of a wide-open American dream; a route marked by a faded joy in scenic adventure-travel, meals in friendly small-town highway café’s, and nostalgia for the history of an open road and open people.… read more...

Taj Mahal review notes YOGA SONG in PR

Taj Mahal Review, Vol. 22, 1 notes YOGA SONG.

I’ve visited the Taj Mahal and published a story once in Cutbank online, which I wrote while riding the train to Agra, but never thought to be in TMR.

Road Mishaps put a halt to Wind in the Face

An obstacle in the road sent my Road King to the HD hospital. Bull Falls Harley Davidson in Wausau to be exact.

DANG,

. . . just the way it goes sometimes.… read more...

From The Mesa Tribune on Yoga Song

When teaching motorcycle riding for the state of Hawaii, I noticed a few students having trouble on the practice range with the bike. Some tightened up and held their breath when trying to execute a tight figure-8 turn on the range. The figure-8 is a requirement to pass the riding test.

During this time, I found myself in a stressful situation on my bike and I executed a difficult escape maneuver with ease. It surprised me and then it dawned on me that practicing yoga taught me to be at ease in the midst of stress.’

That’s when I realized I could translate lessons from yoga and take them to the riding range when teaching bikers. In time, I decided to share this with more motorcycle riders. That’s how “Yoga and Leather,” yoga for bikers was born.

Bikers are good at shifting gears and they have to be.

They also love movement, so when teaching yoga to bikers I try to integrate the language of motorcycling and shifting into the yoga process.

When learning to ride and control the clutch for example, motorcyclists are taught about the “friction zone.” To shift gears and get moving, bikers must smoothly move the clutch – by hand – in coordination with their foot.

Yoga does the same thing with its warmup as yogis shift from non-movement into easy and slow postures at the start. As they warm up, they shift gears again and move their bodyweight into slightly more challenging postures. Even more than postures; however, both motorcycling and yoga are more fun and are easier to do when we learn how to relax in the midst of stress.

The Yoga-Bike Connection from the Wausau Daily Herald

Former NTC instructor Motorcycling Yogi Greg Ormson writes ‘Yoga Song’ (wausaudailyherald.com)

Yoga Song: Dr. Gregory Ormson: 9788182539594: Amazon.com: Books

From American Rider Magazine, thanks!

Biker Yoga Book: Yoga Song

A small sample from Ch. 14 on yoga for bikers from the forthcoming YOGA SONG

I glance around the outdoor deck and see the outline of my community. They are becoming new on a daily basis as they take up yoga. They acted on faith to get here, so I act on faith to teach as the practice of yoga meets them with its global and spiritual energy.

It takes courage to move beyond cultural stereotypes and do yoga. It also takes courage to teach this ancient, holistic discipline designed for everyone. As a teacher, I set the route; and when ready, they follow the road home to themselves.

Breath by breath, a universal yoga pilgrimage presses them to question their motives and boldly ask “why am I here?” When the question arises, yoga’s song takes over and the yogis remember their courage. They stretch into their containers of reform and travel back to the beginning once again.

The sun is setting on my biker-yogis, and I see them as hopeful; they tiptoe into newness, and sip nectar from an oxygen-rich moment. Western light, partially eclipsed by Earth, illumines their faces with golden rays as they play dead to integrate the last breathing moments of the best previous moments. Alone, quiet, and on the floor, they exhale. On their backs, they release into savasana . . .… read more...

Visitor to Yoga Class at SHD

During the last class of spring/summer we were happy to welcome “Chuck-A-Dog.”
Good energy in yoga, good energy wind in the face, good energy in yoga.

Out-of-Body Yoga: get in on the last two sessions at Superstition Harley Davidson in April (at the most beautiful setting for yoga in Arizona)

It’s no longer surprising when a first-timer says “This is the best thing ever. I feel like I had an out-of-body experience.”

It’s not surprising because yoga fully anchors the physical body in the moment. If someone has not really been present in their body, but focused on what they are doing while forgetting about themselves, yoga and grounding in the present moment through breath and movement will feel foreign . . . . almost like an out of body experience. But in fact it’s just the opposite.

The yogis have told us for centuries that the body is not just the physical self: they believed what we see is a layer over four other layers which they called koshas. Koshas consist of the biological body — the one we see — but unseen layers are breath or the ethereal (which gives life); consciousness; spirituality, and the mental body.

When we get into the physical body, we also get into the spiritual body, the mental body, the ethereal body, and the consciousness body. This may be what some people feel for the first time doing yoga.

Spirituality is in our body even if most spirituality doesn’t honor this fact. Humans are spiritual by nature. This (spirituality) is not the same as holding a particular religion or belief system; rather, spirituality and the nature of being is not based on creed or belief for it is truly beyond definition.

Can anyone sufficiently package a multifaceted human being into into a summary or belief system? I’d say no, because mystery is at the center of human experience and being.… read more...

Yoga for Bikers

Connecting with motorcyclists through yoga | Local News | wjfw.com… read more...

ROYAL ENFIELD: a brief history of the bullet

When I was a kid my parents bought me a stingray style bicycle that we called a muscle bike. With a can of cheap green spray paint, a leopard patterned banana seat, and high handlebars, I went to work updating. Attaching handlebar streamers to the hand grips and playing cards with clothe-pins to the frame, the streamers flapped and playing cards blade slapped the spokes as the wheel moved. In my imagination, my muscle bike sound a bit like a motor.

After graduation from the university, I toured through India with a music group. Before going there, my mentor had given me the name and address of a good friend from the time he lived in Long Island, NY, and asked if I’d stop by in New Delhi to say hello if I had a chance.

One night in Delhi, I borrowed a Royal Enfield Motorcycle and drove to where she lived. I didn’t have a motorcycle license and hadn’t ridden a motorcycle. It’s dangerous to ride without training, and crazy to ride a motorcycle in India, but at 22 I felt invincible; I mounted the bike and took off through the streets of New Delhi dodging animals and people.

I found where she lived, knocked on the door, and told her why I was there. She invited me in for tea and we talked.

After that day, I didn’t ride a motorcycle again until I was 46 years old; but from that night in India until the time I bought my first Harley Davidson motorcycle, I have cherished that memory and the thrilling experience of riding the bike dodging goats, cows, and people.… read more...

January BREATH & MOVEMENT FOR BIKERS OUTDOORS (formerly yoga for bikers)

Yoga outdoors happening for year 5 at Superstition Harley Davidson. Short read below about yoga for bikers (breath and movement) the how and why. Two January classes on the outdoor deck – facing north to the Goldfield Mountains in the east valley – open for anyone. January 11 at 5:00 pm, and January 25 at 5:00 pm. Each session is approximately 50 minutes. Donations welcome.

Motorcycling and life are improved when we learn how to breathe with ease in the midst of stress. This calms the nervous system and makes it easier to concentrate on what’s important.

When we’re riding motorcycles, being at ease and focused are not just good ideas, they are life-saving skills. To that end, a deliberate and conscious linking of breath with movement.

Two times this month you can take advantage of breath and movement for bikers (formerly yoga for bikers) at Superstition Harley Davidson.

WHAT IS IT?

A 50-minute session of breath and movement with yoga like moves focusing on breath, flexibility, and motorcycle performance improvement.
The purpose is to provide an experience of movement and conscious breath connection for stress management leading to life and health benefits.
I’ll provide encouragement and integrity of movement and breath to both motorcycling and yoga.
The sessions become a positive event – offered with a voice of reassurance, sincerity, and encouragement – to motorcyclists and non-motorcyclists.
DATES: Tuesday Jan. 11, 5:00 pm at Superstition Harley Davidson, outdoor deck; and Tuesday, Jan. 25, 5:00 pm at Superstition Harley Davidson, outdoor deck.

RIDING WITH WARRIORS – Thunder Press December, 2021

Thanks Kevin (ed.) Thunder Press, and my photographer friends for helping me light up this story on Run to the Rez. It’s one of my favorite rides every year. Read about fabulous riding in Arizona and how Run to the Rez started nearly 20 years ago. See you in October 2022 for the next Run.

This photo by Oliver Touron, photomotojournalist extraordinaire, and inside photo by Randy Anagnostis, a bright dude who’s my music partner, Superstition Harley Davidson photographer, and businessman.

Find the full story at this link https://thunderpress.net digital

“San Carlos, Arizona, is nestled like a gem within the seven sacred mountains of the Apache people, and its the home to Run to the Rez, perhaps the most spiritual charity ride you’ll ever attend.” GAO

Breath and Movement for Longevity in the Saddle (Nov. 10 and 24) @ SUPERSTITION HARLEY-DAVIDSON

Come on up to the eagle’s nest (outdoor patio) at Superstition Harley-Davidson (2910 W. Apache Trail), for breath and movement for bikers a week from today (November 10 at 5:00 pm). It’s the fourth year of breath and movement designed to keep bikers at ease and in the saddle long term.

Teaching riders for the state of Hawaii as a MSF rider/coach, I watched how new motorcycle riders held their breath when making difficult figure 8 moves on the riding range. Holding one’s breath tightens the entire system. When holding our breath, it’s nearly impossible to be relaxed and at ease. If we are not relaxed and at ease when riding a motorcycle our riding ability is diminished. To be at ease in the midst of stress is a critical factor in athletic performance.

In a 1977 book titled, The Centered Skier, author Denise McCluggage presents 12 chapters of Zen goodness on the mental aspects of skiing. She quoted Jean-Claude Killy, the world and Olympic alpine ski champion at the time. Killy said, “You cannot win if you are not relaxed.”

Maybe you say to yourself, so what, I’m not competing. No you may not be competing and maybe the stakes aren’t at the level of an Olympic medal, but in reality the stakes are higher. You are on two-wheels, or three-wheels, and the stakes are about your life. Breath and movement in ease is for bikers because being relaxed in the saddle happens when we learn to be at ease in stress.

This is the therapy of yoga and it is the design of breath and movement.… read more...

The RAKE, The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, and the Royal Enfield #5

About a year ago, a high dollar magazine out of England started showing up at my door every three months. I didn’t recall ordering it, but there it was.

It is impressive, displaying an incredible array of contemporary fashion, luxury items, high-brow writing, and in-depth feature stories by writers at the top of their literary game.

All of this is displayed on top of the line quality magazine stock with superb photography. I love it, but also held my breath preparing for a big bill while still confused about why The Rake was showing up.

Today, over a year later, I was paging through The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride Website and saw my name on a list from a photo I had sent a year ago. Apparently my Royal Enfield – and rider – were selected from worldwide submissions as a top ten biker dapper ride pic for 2020 (hey, thanks for telling me I got #10).

Contest prizes included money and expensive watches to the first thee, and a year-long subscription to The Rake for the next seven. Alright. No watch or $$$, but cool anyway. BTW, where’s my cigar?

Rake Magazine, and Revolution Magazine founder Wei Koi (black helmet) was the judge for the 2020 dapper rider and bike contest. He’s known globally for his work in fashion, and expertise in watches (explaining why there are so many watch advertisements in The Rake).

Since 2015, Koi has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the DGR (men’s health issues and prostate study and research).

The Distinguished Gentlemen’s (and women’s) ride for 2022 will be in May. … read more...

THE MEDICINE WHEEL RIDE: shedding light on an invisible crisis

I’m pleased to have this article in Thunder Press featuring a strong group of Indigenous Women Motorcycle Riders and Leaders.

Thanks Kevin (ed). All photos by Oliver Touron, rider and photomotojournalist extraordinaire. click on photos to enlarge text or go to thunderpress(dot)net for the digital copy.

Read the Medicine Wheel Ride story by going to the digital Thunder Press site, along with the reasons for the Medicine Wheel and coverage of the Sturgis Medicine Wheel Ride. Very recently, the national press has caught on to the facts of Indigenous women and children gone missing and/or murdered with little or no effort to find them. A recent episode of Big Sky (on Hulu) mentioned this, as did a major television network recently during all the press for the missing Floridan woman, Gabby Petito.

The Medicine Wheel Ride and riders are making statements with bikes and voices so that the crisis of missing will be silent no more. Read the full story click each photo below, and/or other motorcycle oriented writing on ThunderPress(dot)net

In The Golden Moment: A riders journal on sunset, highway, and wind by Gregory Ormson

September’s issue of Thunder Press includes a 2021 review of Sturgis Bike Week and my story below. Thanks Kevin Duke (ed)., and Oliver Touron for this photo of Debbie and I heading west on I-8 closing in on Yuma, AZ. Riding for #MMIWC on the way to San Diego’s #MedicineWheelRide. Link to full issue below

https://thunderpress.net/digital-edition?oly_enc_id=… read more...

Yoga and Leather by Keith Uhlig, Wausau Daily Herald

Thank you Keith Uhlig at the Wausau Daily Herald for this story; and also to Pookie, Scott, and all the folks at Bull Falls Harley Davidson for allowing me to offer this important class. Come out Saturday, 10:00 am to Bull Falls HD, Yoga for Bikers happening to keep you in the saddle long-term. #bullfallshd, @bigcheese107.9, @UligK #wausaudailyherald, #superstitionhd, #motorcyclingyogig, #randyanagnostis, #bribri1119, #randyanagnostis

Yoga Class Poster (2)

https://www.wausaudailyherald.com/story/news/2021/08/18/motorcycling-yogi-teach-yoga-moves-bull-falls-harley-davidson/5416236001/?fbclid=IwAR2pLbVrdx5DzvWU_-jLYCSTnHXiLswxaOTH70nn6rYUSlT4_Zvh9wzBc0E… read more...

WIFJ TV report on yoga 4 bikers

Thank you WIFW and Kyle Pozorski!

https://www.wjfw.com/storydetails/20210823070608/connecting_yoga_to_motorcyclists\

Thank you Wisconsin Public Radio

https://www.wpr.org/wisconsin-native-motorcycling-yogi-shares-his-love-bikes-and-yoga… read more...

YOGA 4 BIKERS at Bull Falls HD

https://www.wausaudailyherald.com/story/news/2021/08/18/motorcycling-yogi-teach-yoga-moves-bull-falls-harley-davidson/5416236001/?fbclid=IwAR07msLeXONfmeVRqaIXKbJZACQNn1V6WN9erv05pc5SS-xCWbP-itnf1vk

The ‘Motorcycling Yogi’ brings his calming yoga methods to Bull Falls Harley-Davidson

Keith Uhlig

https://twitter.com/gaormson/status/1428311933388787712?s=21

Wausau Daily Herald

https://www.wausaudailyherald.com/story/news/2021/08/18/motorcycling-yogi-teach-yoga-moves-bull-falls-harley-davidson/5416236001/?fbclid=IwAR07msLeXONfmeVRqaIXKbJZACQNn1V6WN9erv05pc5SS-xCWbP-itnf1vk… read more...

ON WISCONSIN: This is for bikers at Bull Falls Harley-Davidson August 21

Learn how to extend your riding life and improve overall well-being through a FREE 90-minute yoga workshop at on Saturday, Aug. 21, where Gregory Ormson #motorcyclingyogig will lead “Yoga for Bikers” from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Bull Falls Harley-Davidson, located on 1570 County Road XX in Rothschild.

“Ultimately,” Ormson said, “both motorcycle riding and life are enhanced when riders continue applying the key lesson of yoga . . . and that is being at ease in the midst of stress.”

ALL ARE WELCOME to attend this workshop; no yoga experience or special clothing is necessary. The active movements are beginner level and focused on bikers’ needs: backs, necks, hips, hands, and wrists. Passive movements and a continuation on breath management will be part of this workshop.

Ormson is a former certified Motorcycle Safety Foundation rider/coach for the state of Hawaii, a long time Harley-Davidson rider, and a certified yoga teacher. He started YOGA & LEATHER: yoga for bikers, at Superstition Harley-Davidson in Apache Junction, Ariz., in 2017, and has led yoga and breath workshops in Queen Creek, Ariz.; Marquette, Mich.; and at D.C. Everest Fieldhouse in Schofield.

Ormson first saw yoga in India and started practicing in Hawaii where his injured back had forced him to temporarily suspend motorcycling. “Healthy spine, healthy life they say in yoga; and after I started yoga, I could bike again and do many other activities I had to quit for a while,” he said.

Story and poster by Scott Steuck, courtesy Bull Falls Harley-Davidson

Yoga and Leather

YOGA AND LEATHER (yoga for motorcyclists) at Superstition Harley Davidson in Arizona – YouTube… read more...

“We Still Stand” spoken word music for Indigenous resiliance and tenacity

Many thanks to the #mmiwriders for allowing us to support and be part of the 2021 San Diego Medicine Wheel Ride. The many thousands of murdered and missing Indigenous Sisters is beyond tragic. The efforts created by #mmiw – to champion greater awareness and change – are necessary and commendable.

⊕ FAST FACTS: “In 2016, there were 5,712 cases reported of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute, but only 116 cases were logged in the U.S. Department of Justice database.” by Nienke Onneweer, Arizona Republic April 30, 2021.

“IN some communities, Indigenous women are sexually assaulted and murdered at rates as high as 10X the national average.” ⊕

This GRSound piece “We Still Stand” testifies to the Indigenous peoples’ resilience and tenacity. Still standing, and still celebrating after abuse and terror. (melody and keyboard Randy Anagnostis, lyric and vocal Gregory Ormson).… read more...

Motorcycling, Free Diving, and Chess – all improved by yoga

From OM Yoga Magazine (UK) May, 2021. Thank you OM.

Yoga as a life-altering gift

Talking Story and Riding the Medicine Wheel #rideformmiw

Truer than ever before, much of the world was asleep in their screens during 2020. Television, cell phones, and computers offered connections during the worst of the world-wide pandemic, but connections sans touch.

Such connections seem void of what I’d call true encounter. An incarnated connection is more real for it’s in the flesh and is sustained over time by meeting, greeting, touching or holding intimate space for one another.

Emerging from the last year of sleep and screens, 2021 is sparking a new consciousness. We are realizing something critical to the survival of Earth and the human species. We need to talk with one another.

I’m discovering that as we sit down together and engage we learn how to listen again. Listening teaches how build and sustain by giving, taking, and willingly offering disclosure and feedback. This happens when we “talk story,” a phrase and practice I learned from the Hawaiians. Talking story is no small thing. It’s the way movements start, and the way the medicine wheel ride started.

Talking story, the indigenous women spoke about the missing and murdered sisters, mothers, aunts, cousins, daughters, and grandmothers they knew – from all nations – they realized the tragedy was three-fold. First, that it happens at all. Second that it happens at an alarming rate among indigenous peoples than anywhere else; and third, that nobody was talking about it.

These crimes continue to break and destroy the bonds of family and community everywhere but especially on indigenous lands.

The Medicine Wheel Ride was formed for awareness, disclosure, feedback, justice, and change.… read more...

THE LANTERN from UW La Crosse, on yoga and leather

This isn’t your ordinary biker gang.

Technically, it’s not a gang at all — just a community of denim-clad Harley enthusiasts who love to roar down an open road, and then unwind with some deep breathing and meditative poses.

“Learning to breathe, be calm, work on your body — these are all things that you practice in yoga and that can translate into motorcycling,” explains Greg Ormson, ’77, founder of the Yoga and Leather: Yoga for Bikers program at Superstition Harley-Davidson in Apache Junction, Arizona. “It’s all predicated on the notion that, if you’re at ease in the saddle, you’re going to feel better and be a much better motorcyclist.”

Ormson is a true renaissance man — a biker, a yogi, a writer, a musician, a world traveler and a student of several religions. He is a shining example of someone who doesn’t just defy stereotypes, but disproves them.

After retiring from his marketing and communications job at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau in 2012, Ormson and his partner moved to Hawaii.

But in paradise, Ormson felt mostly pain.

I saw all these signs on the street corners: yoga, yoga, yoga, I decided to try it.

He had long struggled with back issues — the result of falling off a trampoline as a child and tumbling off a roof as an adult. Years of motorcycling only made it worse.

Then, walking around the streets of Hawaii, Ormson had an epiphany.

“I saw all these signs on the street corners: yoga, yoga, yoga,” he remembers.

RESPLENDENT PASSAGES: Motorcycling Diaries in Soul Craft

Reviews From Riders

A Riders Share Owner’s Story

It’s no longer surprising when a first-timer says “This is the best thing ever. I feel like I had an out-of-body experience.”

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