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

Karen Larsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2004

reaking the Limit is one woman's account of riding her motorcycle from New Jersey to Alaska and back. Realizing that years of work and travel in other people's countries made her a stranger in her own, and with an invitation to meet her biological father for the first time, Karen Larsen set out on a fifteen-thousand-mile trip with nothing but her motorcycle and the barest of essentials. Larsen's journey tests the limits of her own endurance, challenges her long-held beliefs and values, and asks what it means to belong to a family. Through the the fields of Iowa and the deserts of the Southwest, over the Rockies and across Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Larsen confronts questions of femininity, family, independence, and personal identity. Her journey speaks to the immense space and over-whelming beauty of North America, as well as to the diversity and vitality of the people she meets along the way. Breaking the Limit invites you to join her as she braces against the wind, trades security for freedom, sacrifices stability for motion, and opens herself up to the vast canopy of a continent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Between finishing graduate school and starting a new job, Canadian-born but American-bred Larsen decided it was time for a major motorcycle expedition. She wasn't trying to "find herself"—at 31, she figured she knew herself. Nor was she one of those infamous " 'biker babes,' 'fender bunnies,' or 'biker chicks,' " out looking for guys. She just wanted to see more of America. For Larsen, who fell in love with motorcycles when she was 15, motorcycle touring is the perfect way to experience both scenery and people: she smells the fields, she feels the storms, she meets the curious. Departing from New Jersey in June 2000, Larsen drove her Harley-Davidson 1200 Sportster clear across the continent to Washington State, then north through British Columbia and Alaska—and back. While there was one emotional high point in the trip (meeting her father's family in Canada) and one mildly low point (breaking up with her already uninterested boyfriend over the phone), Larsen is not given to wild mood swings—she mainly describes road conditions, landscape, her campgrounds and her limited contact with people along the way. Buried in the daily details, however, are some inviting questions about the travel experience: why do so many tourists wander into risky situations believing themselves immune to disaster? And why do we believe our chosen mode of travel is more authentic than someone else's, just because it's more arduous?
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Karen Larsen does development work for non-profit organizations. She received her master's degree in public administration from Princeton University and lives in New Jersey.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (June 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786868708
• ISBN-13: 978-0786868704
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #660,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice ride..., December 7, 2004

By 

T. Nicol (Geneva, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Breaking the Limit: One Woman's Motorcycle Journey Through North America (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Road Trip - It Doesn't Matter Where To., September 30, 2004

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breaking the Limit: One Woman's Motorcycle Journey Through North America (Hardcover)

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!

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story for Everyone, May 8, 2005

By 

Rennick J. Harris (Napa Valley, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breaking the Limit: One Woman's Motorcycle Journey Through North America (Hardcover)

This book is about life on and off a motorcycle - a book for everyone.

I just purchased by tenth copy to give to a friend. If you ride a bike you'll love it; if you dont't you'll still love it! I started the book about nine o'clock one evening and just kept on reading until I finished the story.

Karen Larsen uses a ride from New Jersey to Alaska and back to review her life and project her future; you can join her and live your own adventure as you pour through the pages. You can laugh with her, cry with her and come away in awe of the world in which we live - if you liked Pirsig you'll love Larsen.