It comes down to this…Adam and I share an aesthetic, a vision where riding and camping and seeing and doing merge into one long, luscious stream of tarmac, and while circumstances don’t allow me to do this every day, I would if I could. So The Orygun Run is, to me, the epitome of the riding and storytelling and camping and connecting I know.
I’ve done some brand and model-specific meet-ups and wasn’t happy with the contrived bullshit. “Yay, us! We all bought the same thing!” The Orygun Run is different.
If you’d told me that my most aggressive riding partner rode a Harley, I would’ve been surprised. I’d never expected a cruiser rider to suggest a more curvy and interesting route than the main route last year. Never would I have predicted that there was a cruiser rider who enjoyed aggressiveness. All the cruiser riders I’ve ridden with were complaining at maintaining speed limit rather than taking it down to advisory speeds in the corners. I was sometimes lovingly called a menace for my enjoyment of a more sporting approach than my cruiser friends. So, I was very, very wrong. And she kicked some cornering ass.
I would never have expected that my preference for other kinds of whisky than Canadian would cause me a conflict with someone on a ride. Or that he was riding a Triumph Scrambler, iirc. So, there was my beloved FJR1300, a Triumph Scrambler, an R6 and Daytona couple, lots of cruisers, but plenty of standards, a few dualies, etc. In short, there were different nationalities on different machines and we all shared each other’s stories in meaningless and sometimes meaningful ways. I learned that the Yamaha R6 Raven with gold accents I’d admired at my butcher was the same guy who was a butcher and riding a different R6 on The Orygun Run. I wasn’t even nearly the oldest guy on the ride, so there were even a wide variety of ages, too.
Oh, and this year I won’t party on the first night. Or the second. Possibly the third, but that’s subject to my vanity and my lethargy and what kind of food is tempting me. You can, and should, if you want, though. There’s plenty of sponsored and free-lance beverages as well as quality trees in joint form, since this whole thing is sponsored by a Montana beer company and an Oregon boutique cannabis company. I want to be up early and hit the long runs that Adam’s formulating for us mileage hogs. I’m hoping to hit around 500 miles per day, depending on where and what else might happen. Or I might hit something lower, but curvier, like, Hwy 20 between Philomath and Waldport on the way to the Yachats camp on night two.
Last year was inaugural and fantastic, and I anticipate an even better version this year as the team evolves from a great launch. Oh, and I’ll have the patches proudly displayed. I was there at the start.
-David, Saoirse Touring