Gregory Ormson

Writer, musician, yoga-loving motorcyclist.

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 – Read this and you’ll know

Asked what brings people to the rally, Steve Garrett, organizer, and leader said, “The riding. There are five National Parks all around us. We are about the bikers, the town, and nothing else.”

Garrett, his wife Sue, and a dedicated team of staff and volunteers have worked hard to strengthen ties with the City of Panguitch. This year, the city helped prepare the fairgrounds and cleaned the main building for biker registration. They also erected large tents and helped Garrett hoist a new welcoming sign, sponsored by Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys, on Highway 89, the ingress to both north and south Panguitch. “The town appreciates this,” Garret said, “with its big welcome to Panguitch message.”

Started officially in 2008 by Rick Story, a long-time employee of Timpanogos (now Summit) Harley Davidson, with assistance from his wife Sweetie, the rally grew in four years but health concerns forced Rick and Sweetie to take a break this year. Garrett, who’d worked with Story in the previous rallies, took over leadership with assistance from his friend, Rabbit Downward. 

“Old school meant pride and brotherhood,” Story said. “It used to be that all bikers cared about one another, and it didn’t matter what kind of bike you had.” The rally is evidence that old school doesn’t mean old, and old school ideals aren’t dead. 

Bikers helping bikers, at no cost, still lives as one of the main benefits of connecting with the Russ Brown Motorcycle Lawyers organization. They were a major sponsor of the Panguitch Rally this year, along with Zion Harley Davidson, and Wasatch Indian Motorcycles.… read more...

This Bike (magazine cover) is on FIRE. See it and rent it for a ride to the Grand Canyon

Featured in six magazines: Thunder Press, American Rider, OM Yoga Magazine, Yoga Magazine (cover), The Taj Mahal Review, AZ Rider News; Four newspaper stories: The Green Bay Press Gazette, The Wausau Daily Herald, The Mesa Tribune, The Mining Journal; 2 University Alumni Publications and 2 other online publications: Yahoo.com, Phoenix Indian Center, Northern Michigan University, The University of Wisconsin La Crosse, LANTERN. Rent this great bike from me through RIDERS SHARE platform (the airbnb of motorcycling).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a cool video link from my friend Ram Hernandez as he’s riding this bike

AND the best part is, you can rent it from me through Riders Share. Here is my link through this great platform:

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

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...

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 because 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.
… read more...

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