Gregory Ormson

Writer, musician, yoga-loving motorcyclist.

Run to the Rez 2024 – story in December American Rider Magazine

 

Runnin’ Against The Wind

The 21st annual official Run to the Rez was held October 17-21 at the Apache Gold Casino and Resorts in San Carlos, Arizona. 2024 was the biggest yet, attracting 720 registered riders and many spectators and onlookers.

From the beginning, this motorcycle event has honored military veterans. Saturday’s program at Burdette Hall in San Carlos, following a group ride from the Apache Gold Casino to San Carlos, displays respect for all warriors and all Nations. As townspeople in San Carlos show up in large numbers to cheer bikers on, the throaty voice of rumbling bikes amplifies the celebration. Joining a large group of bikers on the way to Saturday morning’s program has always been fun, and townspeople enjoy bikers throwing candy to children as onlookers wave, take photos, and salute the riders.

“This run is all about honoring the veterans. It gets bigger and better every year,” said John Bush, one of the first few Geronimo Riders of that small group to hold a ride honoring Veterans nearly 30 years ago. Bush is still leading Run to the Rez but he said it’s not just him. “We couldn’t do it without the volunteers, and we had about 25.”

Burdette Hall’s program honored Gold Star Family members, and two veteran Grand Marshalls of the November 11 Veterans Day parade (Matt Hinton and Emerson Bayless). Each year the program honors a Viet Nam veteran, and this year it was combat veteran (Jonathan Victor). Honorees received lankets and donations along with a cash gift from the Rez Riders MC.… 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

 

 

 

 

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

Need to go south and rent a Harley for your riding fix? Get this one through Riders Share.


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.

I’ve motorcycled around three Hawaiian islands, and in India, Canada, Mexico; and the 48 from Seattle to Niagara Falls, Winnipeg to Mexico.

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!

Reviews From Riders

Larry
Illinois

2016 HARLEY-DAVIDSON TOURING ROAD KING (TWO TONE)

The bike ran in tip-top shape.

… 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!
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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...

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

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