Breaking the Limit: One Woman's Motorcycle Journey Through North America

Rating:
Summary: Pack Your T-Bag and Let's Ride!
Review: A must read for every motorcycle rider, woman and man.

After hearing about this book in August '03, I couldn't wait for the release. I picked up this book on a Friday and read it straight through the weekend.

Karen Larsen's journey touched my heart and soul.

While she explores the country side, she learns about her strengths as a solo rider, as a woman, and as a traveler. The aromas from the flowers and grasses waft out of the pages; her descriptions are so vivid. I felt the heat from the sun baking her as she rode. Moisture in the air where she rode dampened the pages of my book. Dust and rocks flew up from cars in front of her and out of the book. I was on the back seat of Lucy.

There was kindness and generosity from strangers. There was carelessness of drivers in cars and r.v.s. The other riders and travelers she encounters run the gamut of stereotypes. The emotions she shared were honest and raw.

I enjoyed every page. I didn't want to put the book down, yet I didn't want the journey to end.

Thank you Karen Larsen for sharing your adventure. Thank you for your insight into the human psyche. I'll read this book over and over. I'll tell everyone, including my motorcycle riding friends, about this book.

Rating:
Summary: Ready to go
Review: After reading this book I am inspired to make my own journey. Just me, my bike, and no place to go in particular. Beautiful writing.

Rating:
Summary: Nice ride...
Review: Early on in reading this book I might have agreed with a couple other reviewers who thought it a little stuffy (some embellishments of scenes were a little over the top) or for whom constant references to "Lucy" (the motorcycle) got a little tedious, but those things are small compared to how well this author does everything else. I've done this all my adult life - set off to parts unknown on motorcycles - and Ms. Larsen gets so much of it just right. From the magnificence of the things you see, to the loneliness of being a thousand miles from anyone you know, to the magnificence of the loneliness and the unfettered ability to search your own soul, to the "grit-your-teeth-and-drive-no-matter-how-miserable-you-are" doggedness that you have to endure just to move forward some days. I like to describe long distance motorcycling as the greatest way I know to be miserable. In this book I felt all the emotional ups and downs that go along with it. I envy her ability to capture those extremes very much. The more I read, the more I looked forward to sitting down with this book again. I enjoyed it very much and hated to see this ride end.

P.S. I would really like to have seen a route map included on one of the inside covers or pages and a small section with pictures.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I haven't devoured a book this quick in years. I found Karen's journey to be fascinating both in character and description. I've been a biker for a few years and envied her trip and courage. The book wasn't about finding one's self or searching for the ultimate answer to life but a story of what it feels like to journey on a motorcycle, the inherit dangers and her descriptions of what we feel when we are on our bikes. It was comforting for her to reinforce the idea that as you travel across the country on back roads that as a whole people are friendly and willing to lend a hand and that bikers share a certain friendship and connection that only we understand, irregardless of who you are or what you ride. There is no moral or hidden meaning in this book, just Karen out to discover the real USA and a few things about herself. I must say that the description of the high school she talks about is right on for I grew up in that town and graduated from the same high school.

Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: I read a review about Breaking the Limit in a motorcycle magazine and it looked interesting. There are so few books on bike touring and when I'm not riding I love to read about riding. Although I have never done any extensive touring like Karen Larsen does, I enjoyed it immensely and could relate to much on what she had to say about the yuppie bikers.
What I didn't expect was her examinations on life and a woman alone on the road. Her observations and conclusions remind me of my own daughter and the way she looks at life.

Rating:
Summary: A bit stuffy
Review: I really enjoyed the travelog, the descriptions of places, weather concerns, campsites, etc. The inner turmoil described when the author was contemplating the meetings with her family was exceptional.

I do take offense, though, to the snobby attitude about other bikers she met on the road, especially what she calls the "day bikers". I am a woman motorcyclist also, and take cross-country as well as cross-town trips on my bike, and I think that anyone I meet who is adventurous enough to ride, whether just for the day or for a month is a pretty cool person. I thought the "brotherhood" of bikers extended to the whole group, not just to a select few.

I was very inspired by the book as a whole, and thoroughly ejoyed reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I was in Barnes and Noble and knew I recognized this name from somewhere! I was starting the Peace Corps in Bulgaria just as she was finishing her service. She was one of our trainers and was so incredibly articulate and inspiring. I look very forward to reading this book!
Alexandra Saperstein, Los Angeles

Rating:
Summary: Great journey, great adventure, great book
Review: If you liked Robyn Davidson's book, Tracks, you will like this book. In my opinion this is a great adventure book, a great feminists book and a great travel book. It is about one woman's two-wheeled trip from New Jersey to California to Alaska and return on a motorcycle. One her journey she met fellow travelers (including bicyclists like me,) local folks and her birth family. Larsen is an excellent writer and her trip, like all good journeys, led her to a lot of self-revelations. If you can't make the journey yourself you should at least read the book. It is a great trip!

Rating:
Summary: Road Trip - It Doesn't Matter Where To.
Review: There is a mode you sometimes get into when a road trip is all but necessary. I haven't done one on two wheels in quite some years, since before she was born, my pickup with a matress in back is much more my style now. But every year or two I get the urge to go somewhere a few thousand miles away. Given three months between jobs, what better way could Karen Larsen have spent the time than to get on a bike and go 15,000 miles.

I agree with her completely that you need some time alone just letting the miles go by. At the same time you find yourself talking to people just as though they were there. And when you go find an interesting site, perhaps a National Park, parhaps just a pretty spot on the road you want to share it. I have never had an unknown father to look up, but stopping off to see friends from the far past is a truly excellent way to spend an evening.

Now I'm getting the urge to go somewhere: Death Valley, the coast of Nova Scotia. Hmmmmm!

Rating:
Summary: Better titled Memoir of a Motorcycle Mama Martyr
Review: This could have been a truly great book and I'm sure there will be many who think it is.

It strikes me that Ms. Larsen is a product of the postmodern academic milieu, as she seems to believe that two diametrically opposed ideas can both be true. She tells the reader that being alone is very important to her and then laments the very loneliness she spent so much time and so many words trying to extol the virtues of. It seems to me that she wants autonomy and intimacy at the same time.

She makes a point more than once that she has a problem with religious proselytizing and yet the entire book is basically a work of apologetics for her worldview. I must admit that the preaching about gender stereotypes gets a little old.

She is at her best when describing the scenery, people and situations she encounters on her journey. All in all the book is a descent read if you, like me, love road books.