Mogollon Rim Road
Posted by Steve Larsen in Motorcycles, Uncategorized on June 12th, 2009
Christa from Road Runner magazine (a terrific publication, by the way, and if you don’t subscribe you absolutely should) was here a few weeks back and asked me about riding the Mogollon Rim Road. It is a 55 mile forest service road from Forest Lakes to Show Low, AZ and runs 5-10 miles south of Hwy 260 right along the rim. At the time (early spring) reports said it was too damp, too rutted and nasty for motorcycles, so she passed.

However, I was curious about it so I did the ride on Wednesday. Round trip from the house was 396 miles so it made for a long day (of course, the route I chose was partially responsible). However the intensity of the Rim Road ride and especially the last 7.7 miles would lead me to recommend this as “the” primary ride of the day and not to try and put too much before and certainly, not too much after you get off this road - as you will be beat. Here is a more complete description of the road and some more photos. Let me know what you think: mogollan-rim-road
Best bike for this would be a dual sport oriented more toward off-road. I was on my Wee-Strom and would have much preferred a 1200GS or any KTM.
Terrific review of a 1969 Lotus Elan
Posted by Steve Larsen in Motorcycles, Uncategorized on May 28th, 2009
Leno’s review of this iconic sports car is especially sweet given that I have a 1969 Lotus Elan SE sitting in my driveway.
And even more sweet is the fact that I purchased the car in 1973 and am only the second owner. It has never been “restored” and everything that has ever been done to this car - which is very little - has been done by me.
Wake me up New York
Posted by Steve Larsen in Uncategorized on May 7th, 2009
New York City has been on my mind for some reason this week. Maybe it is because I remember what an incredible time the month of May is in the city. Being in the city as it wakes up from the rotten winter weather never failed to put me in a great mood. Seeing the trappings of heavy winter garments give way to the lighter and brighter spring fashions on the beautiful women who walk New York streets really lifts ones mood.
A visitor from New York left a house gift of some wonderful coffee. See picture. While it is made in Dallas, it reminded me of New York. And the next thing was this fabulous aerial virtual tour of the city. Now the music accompanying these amazing photo’s is not what reminds me of New York, but the photos are stunning. Enjoy.
Do these socks make my feet stink?
Posted by Steve Larsen in Uncategorized on April 28th, 2009
Last year at the Motorcycle Show in Northern California, Mansoor Shafi of Roadgear asked me to try a pair of his new riding socks. He promised I could wear them ten days in a row, never wash them, and they won’t stink. I thought this was incredible and began thinking about how to test them. In true Motorcycle Consumer News tradition, I found a way to put them to the test and the article is here.
The hardest part was convincing friends to test them with me. First, to not only wear these socks for seven days without washing them, but then to participate in blind sniff tests each night. What we don’t do for readers.
You should meet Annette Birkmann
Posted by Steve Larsen in Motorcycles, Publishing on April 22nd, 2009
Last spring Kari Prager, co-owner of the BMW/Triumph dealership in Mountain View, CA sent me an email saying a rider traveling from the southern tip of South America to New York would be stopping at his shop and did I want to meet her? I would and I did. Her name is Annette Birkmann and she may be the only person to ever abandon a legal career in Denmark to become a motorcycle mechanic in Argentina. She is likely to be one of the few women to ride solo though from the South American continent.
I wrote about her adventures for Motorcycle Consumer News. A copy of the article is here. You may find her “Top Ten Mistakes: Either in life or motorcycle adventures,” very interesting. Let me know what you think.
Find a great MC Training School
Posted by Steve Larsen in Motorcycles on March 8th, 2009
About six weeks ago an interview with David Hough in the BMW Owners magazine in which he highlighted the lack of a single comprehensive list of motorcycle training schools in the US, prompted me to begin putting such a list together. You can see it here.
Since creating the list, I’ve quietly been sharing the link with friends and been getting a number of valuable comments and suggestions. Just recently, David Hough wrote to me as well, and we’ve been in email dialog and based on his inputs I’ll be adding several things to the list, including trike training. 
I believe frequent and regular training should be a part of every motorcyclists regimen and my hope this list will provide guidance and motivation to get out there and take some of these classes.
So, what do you think?
Posted by Steve Larsen in Motorcycles on February 6th, 2009
We are in the process of revising the site and adding lots more new content. Until it is done (say, mid-February) you really don’t want to visit here. The site will be a major mess with broken links and things generally not working. In fact, even navigating to this site could cause your browser to crash. No, no, even worse, it could cause an unrecoverable hard disk crash - and may in fact, cause your house to catch fire - SO LEAVE NOW! I will let you know when it is safe to come back.
Thanks for your patience.
Steve
Take a survey - help a starving writer
Posted by Steve Larsen in Motorcycles on January 22nd, 2009
This month I’m working on an article about riding in groups. If would help me to get thoughts on this topic from highly experienced riders. I’d appreciate it if you could take this survey. The more broadly the link gets circulated, the better, so if people want to forward it to their riding friends, that would be fine.
thanks!
I’t been a long time
Posted by Steve Larsen in Business on September 1st, 2008
Okay, I confess, it has been way too long since I updated this blog. However, I need to point to another blog post and article that will shed some light on why I’ve been so very, very busy.
Graeme Thickins is a longtime marketing consultant, startup advisor, content professional, new media strategist, writer, blogger…and surfer.
He’s known me for years. At the 2007 DEMO event, he said he’d been working on an article that would discuss my career for the past two years, and if I’d help him for an hour or so, he thought he had a buyer for it. He wrote about the process on his blog, and wrote this article for CEO Magazine:
My guess is if you follow these links, you will better understand my hiatus.
Read them in Russian
Posted by Steve Larsen in Publishing on June 28th, 2007
Some time back I began selling some of my motorcycle articles into the Russian market. They translate the stories from English and do new layouts.
Here are two that feature a number of the folks I frequently ride with:
Northern California http://motopress.ru/index.php?d=magazine/7/241&page=1
Italy on Ducati http://motopress.ru/magazine/6/173
Here are several others that may interest others. Anybody read Russian?
Brazil: http://motopress.ru/magazine/12/387
Keith Code Training: http://motopress.ru/magazine/6/176
MotoVentures Training: http://motopress.ru/magazine/12/368
GPS Reviews: http://motopress.ru/magazine/11/379
New Zealand: http://motopress.ru/magazine/20/604
Of course, if you prefer to read them in English, see my Published Motorcycle Articles.

