- All
- Business
- Cars & Motorcycles
- Family
- Health
- Newsletter & Published
- TV Picks
Escaping Phoenix: NYC, Iceland & the UK
By Steve Larsen |
Every July we look for a reason to be anywhere but Phoenix, and this year the reason was a three-week run through New York, Iceland, and the UK. What started as a simple heat-dodging strategy turned into beluga whales, a volcano crater, standing stones older than Stonehenge, and a lot more sunburn-free walking than we’re…
Continue Reading 
Remember You Are Loved – Granddaughter Video #10
By Steve Larsen |
Life is a journey. If you are in college, you adult life is just starting. Always remember one thing – you are loved. And, you – create your own story! This concludes the video series of advice and thoughts I gave to my own Granddaughter when she entered college. I hope you enjoyed it. There…
Continue Reading 
Push Yourself to Grow – Granddaughter Video # 9
By Steve Larsen |
Staying the same – well, it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s like a stick in a moving stream that gets stuck in some rocks as everything moves forward past and around it. If you advance with the flow, THAT’S when you explore and discover new things and different territories! Don’t be fearful of this – embrace…
Continue Reading From Angkor to Mumbai – Thoughts on a 46-Day Trip
By Steve Larsen |
Any trip of this length leaves deep imprints on the brain. You come home with a host of impressions and a few shattered assumptions. For me, the biggest takeaways fell into three categories: First, cultural observations, then what I did not know about container ships, and finally, Singapore. Cultural Observations: I was struck by how…
Continue Reading 
Honor Your Intuition – Granddaughter Video #8
By Steve Larsen |
Stepping onto a college campus for the first time is thrilling, but it can also be overwhelming. In this video—the 8th installment of my college advice series—I share the core principles I passed down to my own granddaughter. We talk about the importance of trusting your gut, choosing a supportive inner circle, and owning your…
Continue Reading 
Share the Good Stuff – Granddaughter Video #7
By Steve Larsen |
Independence doesn’t mean separation or isolation! When away from college – or at anytime in your relationship with your parents or grandparents as a younger adult – don’t just call when your computer breaks or the car you have on campus needs repairs. Share things that are the good stuff things – what you are…
Continue Reading 
Perfection Isn’t the Goal – Granddaughter Video #6
By Steve Larsen |
Perfection? In an imperfect world? It just does not always happen – and it should not be expected. What is most important, is to get things done, accomplished, finished – and then move onward! We all learn from our own mistakes, and our self improvement judgement. But that should not inhibit you from completing something…
Continue Reading 
College Life – Don’t Run on Empty! Granddaughter Video #5
By Steve Larsen |
College Live – Don’t Run on Empty While Seeking Perfection Being away at college can create anxiety, make you feel lonely sometimes, worried about doing the work, perhaps indecisive when choosing a major. It can do all those things – if you let it. But, just like a athlete prepares for their sport, you have…
Continue Reading 
College Is Time To Explore – Granddaughter Video #4
By Steve Larsen |
It is a great age to enter. The four years away at college is a unique learning opportunity, not just with studies, but to also learn about yourself. You are free to explore everything. You may not at first know what you plan to major in – but you will decide over a little bit…
Continue Reading From High School to College
By Steve Larsen |
Here’s the third video I recorded to help my granddaughter in her transition from high school to college. High school was easy for me. College humbled me fast. I wanted to coach my granddaughter on the missteps that taught me asking for help isn’t weakness—it’s wisdom. I told her to be bold, be resilient! Even though…
Continue Reading College Friendships
By Steve Larsen |
Going off to college is scary. When my oldest granddaughter went from two decades of daily contact with parents, family and friends, 1500 miles away to a new state where she’d be totally on her own, I worried. Making College Friendships I wanted to encourage her to not feel lonely, and to make new friends…
Continue Reading The Grandfather’s Letter that went viral: Advice for College-bound kids
By Steve Larsen |
Going off to college is scary. When my oldest granddaughter went from two decades of daily contact with parents, family and friends, 1500 miles away to a new state where she’d be totally on her own, I worried. College Anxiety So, I chose to write her an email, based on my memories of this transition…
Continue Reading We’ve moved!
By Steve Larsen |
After 14 years in a home with amazing views and an over-the-top, 3-bay auto workshop, Maggie and I have finally taken the plunge: we’ve moved into a 2,000‑square‑foot apartment in Scottsdale. This move had been seriously contemplated and discussed for the past five years, but it came about very suddenly. For years, we believed we’d…
Continue Reading Chasing Summer from Brooklyn to the Arctic Circle: 3 Weeks, 4 Countries.
By Steve Larsen |
The idea that Maggie and I might top 2023’s “Quarreling Cousins Go To Norway” trip seemed easy at first, but it grew. Soon our itinerary included NYC, Amsterdam and, of course, Denmark. Seriously, my 2023 trip with cousins Ron Herem and John Gravley couldn’t have been better. We actually got along with a minimum of…
Continue Reading Aggressive, Arrogant, Assholes in Supercars
By Steve Larsen |
Do you drive a supercar? Like a Lamborghini, Ferrari, McLaren, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Maserati (or Corvette, Porsche or BMW) and, do you behave like an asshole behind the wheel? Of course you don’t. But guess what, people think we’re assholes, and I say “we” because I drive one of the brands listed above. Many think…
Continue Reading To My Granddaughter as She Goes to College
By Steve Larsen |
Here’s a letter I sent to my oldest granddaughter the week she headed to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. Dear Emmy, As you begin your first year at college, I’m full of both pride and a bit of worry—a mix of excitement and nerves. What follows is a bit of advice, but not commandments.…
Continue Reading A Lesson After Loss
By Steve Larsen |
A few weeks ago, over dinner, I listened to a friend share his excitement about moving in with his boyfriend. As we talked about their plans, he also mentioned his partner’s struggles with a father’s persistent lack of acceptance. I was instantly empathetic, unfortunately, it wasn’t my first encounter with this sort of thinking. I’d…
Continue Reading An Epiphany that Changed How I see Friendship Forever
By Steve Larsen |
A good while back, I ignored my friend and riding pal Barbara O’Connell’s insistence that I should meet her cousin who lived in Phoenix. “You guys are the same age, you’re both nearing retirement, you each ride motorcycles, you’d get along great.” I was certain her cousin Steve wasn’t looking for another male friend any…
Continue Reading THIS IS WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT
By Steve Larsen |
For years, I’ve attempted to convey what the Dakar Rally is all about, finally giving it an entire chapter in my new book. Not surprisingly, it is one of the longest chapters. Now, in 2025, a new documentary film emerges, offering a behind-the-scenes look at this legendary Rally, along with amazing footage of the race.…
Continue Reading The Eight Best Motorcycles of the Modern Era
By Steve Larsen |
From Gold Wings to GasGas: A veteran rider’s personal picks for the motorcycles that redefined their categories over the past 40 years. Every rider remembers the first time a specific bike took their breath away. In the past 25 years, eight iconic motorcycles did that for me, redefining what I thought was possible on two…
Continue Reading The Ultimate Motorcycle Riding Playlist: A Soundtrack for the Saddle
By Steve Larsen |
IT WAS TOO QUIET WITHOUT SOME MOTORCYCLE SONGS. A few years back, I found myself staring down the barrel of a long, empty highway, one stretching across the continent like a ribbon of possibility and regret. Then, somewhere between the third cup of gas station coffee and the first glimmer of sunrise off the tank,…
Continue Reading Best Vanilla Ice Cream
By Steve Larsen |
The best Vanilla Ice Cream Well, it was one of those mornings on my deck when the sky was so intensely blue that you could almost taste it, and my pal Frank, who’s got opinions on everything from noisy leaf blowers to the proper way to butter toast, declared with the confidence of a man…
Continue Reading 
Surprises in Australia
By Steve Larsen |
Returning from 17 days visiting Australia this week, it wasn’t hard to recall a good number of surprising and unexpected things we discovered that happened “down under.” Our first stop, Sydney, and nearly all other cities we visited long enough to get a good impression of them, which included Melbourne, Geelong, Hobart, and Port…
Continue Reading 
How Your Life’s Experiences Create a Beautiful Tapestry
By Steve Larsen |
Life’s experiences are not isolated—they are threads woven into a greater masterpiece. This article explores how challenges, passions, and relationships interconnect to shape a richer, more meaningful existence. Recognizing these connections allows us to appreciate the full tapestry of our lives. Read the full article here.
Continue Reading 
Best Tips Ever for Staying Safe on the Street
By Steve Larsen |
Motocops put more miles riding in the areas where the most motorcycle accidents and deaths happen and yet, proportional to the miles driven, they have only a fraction of the accidents compared with all riders. Why? Because cop training is far longer and more intense than any other rider training. I will explain why…
Continue Reading 
SHOT IN THE ARM
By Steve Larsen |
Late last year I had the opportunity to see an early screening of the film, SHOT IN THE ARM. I just learned it is currently streaming for free on PBS.org and the PBS app. Produced and Directed by Academy Award nominee Scott Hamilton Kennedy and Executive produced by the brilliant Neil deGrasse Tyson, this is…
Continue Reading 
Tell Them You Love Me
By Steve Larsen |
The Netflix documentary Tell Them you Love Me sheds remarkable insight into a world filled with amazing stories of newly found literacy in nonspeaking people. It provides this understanding without preaching or throwing out a lot of facts, but through brilliant storytelling. While not always easy to watch, I found it riveting. Anna Stubblefield, a…
Continue Reading Politics: I finally get it!
By Steve Larsen |
The Politics Industry Most know I rarely write or post about politics. While I have some political beliefs, I find little value in discussing them. It is unlikely to influence those on the other side of the political fence and it could hurt my relationships. But a recent book has brought me out of this…
Continue Reading A Perfect Marriage Proposal
By Steve Larsen |
Watching daughter Ginger and future son-in-law deliver the news of their wedding engagement, and hearing the details of the proposal and ring unveiling, triggered memories of my proposal to Maggie, Ginger’s mother. There is a chance future son-in-law Chris may share a similar romantic planning ineptitude gene with me. Leading up to my proposal to…
Continue Reading Survey Results: A Kaleidoscope of Faith Viewpoints
By Steve Larsen |
While religion played an over-sized role in my early life, in my later years that role has changed so much that I’ve been reluctant to write about it for fear of offending family members and close friends. In the past ten years, I’ve begun to relax a bit more around the subject as I’ve been…
Continue Reading Ahoy: A tale from the High Seas
By Steve Larsen |
We just returned home from a 14-day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to San Diego, through the Panama Canal. This is the longest cruise I’ve ever done, although Maggie did a trip in 2016 for 37 days with her sister Diana, around South America. Loving the experience, she wanted to test a longer tour on…
Continue Reading A Lawsuit that reshaped the Internet
By Steve Larsen |
March 15, 2024 Stratton Oakmont versus Prodigy is a lawsuit that happened when I worked there and had major impacts on the online lives of AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy users then, but these issues haven’t gone away. A single message board post ignited a legal firestorm. The implication of the lawsuit and subsequent legislation dramatically…
Continue Reading The Evolution of Automotive Passion: From Triumph Spitfire to McLaren
By Steve Larsen |
Last year, in 2023, I sold two iconic collector cars, my 1969 Lotus Elan and 2002 Acura NSX. The Lotus I owned for 50 years, purchasing it when I was just 21. The NSX I held for just 18 years. I’ve written about both of these cars in detail here [https://stevelarsen.net/cars/]. Of course, I miss…
Continue Reading 2023 Book List and Recommendations
By Steve Larsen |
Surveying my 2023 books read list, at first, it seemed I’d slipped below my average of 50 books a year. Last year it was 61, so I entered 2023 with a small cushion. My first count for this post was 42, but then I kept finding ones I’d missed, so I may have made 50. …
Continue Reading 19 Motorcycle Myths
By Steve Larsen |
RIDER Magazine published my first motorcycle article in a long time. If would be fun if you let me know what you think of the story – especially if you ride motorcycles. This topic has bounced around in my head for years. Artist Hector Cademartori’s illustrations make the story. There were 20 myths, but one…
Continue Reading Scandinavian Odyssey: Exploring Roots, Family, and History
By Steve Larsen |
INTRODUCTION Cousin Ron Herem conceived this trip, wishing to follow up on his 2018 expedition with his wife, Gwen. He wanted to dig deeper into family archives, meet more family members, and consult with local historians in Sauda who might shed more light on the people and places of our Norwegian ancestors. It’s anyone’s guess…
Continue Reading LOST DRONE – ALL MY FAULT
By Steve Larsen |
It was inevitable. I was going to do something stupid and lose my new DJI Avata drone. And I did, but there is some redemption in this story. Let me explain and give you a link to my first ever drone video: The wonders of piloting a drone first hit me when seeing Parrot’s first…
Continue Reading From Superman Dreams to Soaring Realities: Through the Skies and the Art of Quitting
By Steve Larsen |
The Dunning-Kruger Effect states the less we know about a particular topic, the more we think we know. It’s what won David Dunning and Justin Kruger the Nobel Prize and what I wrote about here. The effect was discussed in the above-referenced newsletter on motorcycle riding, so I’ll not elaborate, other than to say this…
Continue Reading A Debate Champion’s Guide: How to find the truth.
By Steve Larsen |
Competing in debate, our Fairmont High School team accumulated an impressive series of wins, ultimately landing us in completion for the state championship in Minnesota. Debate wins come by accumulating points. Not only the “quality and reasonableness” of an argument, but the sources used to back it up. We learned the hierarchy of what was…
Continue Reading Abortion Pill Ban and Science
By Steve Larsen |
Writing about politics is not something I do, but I do write about science. It appears to me our government and courts would benefit if they’d base their decisions and policies on scientific proof, versus information found on the Internet, chat rooms, and blog posts. Legal decisions and government policy with the underpinnings of actual…
Continue Reading A Quitter’s Guide: Dunning-Kruger Effect
By Steve Larsen |
The Dunning-Kruger effect popped into my consciousness recently. A friend had responded in a decidedly authoritarian tone explaining why my assessment of a particular vehicle’s performance was wrong, backing up their assertion with a personal anecdote. This is classic Dunning-Kruger — the less we know about a particular topic, the more we think we know…
Continue Reading MISS Foundation founder recognized
By Steve Larsen |
Few things humble me more than my association with Joanne Cacciatore and the MISS Foundation. She was recently honored by the town in which she lives, Sedona, with an award on International Women’s Day. She talks about receiving this Philanthropy Leadership award here. Following is what Joanne said at the event honoring her. She expresses…
Continue Reading 
RIP Stu Oltman
By Steve Larsen |
Before collaborating with Oltman on many articles for Motorcycle Consumer News (MCN) magazine, I knew him as the slightly curmudgeonly Honda Goldwing expert who dispensed advice to riders in the GWRRA (Goldwing Road Riders Association) at their monthly meetings at Chompie’s Deli on Shea Blvd. in Scottsdale, AZ. Stu’s level of mechanical and electrical expertise…
Continue Reading RIP Barney Watson
By Steve Larsen |
My friend Barney Watson passed away in the morning hours of Feb 18, 2023. He’d just turned 80 years old. His brother Rex, and Rex’s wife Tana were with him, along with Barney’s best friend, Roger Meinershagen. Barney is survived by his wife, Claudia. My path to meeting Barney was a bit odd. It began…
Continue Reading 
Under the covers of Shen Yun
By Steve Larsen |
After seeing posters and promotions for Shen Yun, Maggie and I finally went to a performance this past Sunday at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix. Going in I had little idea of what it was other than the acrobatic dances in the previews. The dancing and music looked pretty cool. But we left at…
Continue Reading 
It’ll never fly, Orville
By Steve Larsen |
The final twenty years of my career was directly involved in disrupting large companies stuck with stale “we are too big to fail” thinking. Running into a person near my age, as I did at lunch last week, espousing today’s version of “It’ll never fly, Orville Syndrome,” irritated me. Don’t people read history and pay…
Continue Reading 
Get Hooked on the Hunt with John Sandford’s ‘Righteous Prey’
By Steve Larsen |
I’ve just completed the latest (32nd) book in John Sandford’s “Prey” series which features cop, detective, Marshall, and sleuth Lucas Davenport. This series began in 1989 with Rules of Prey, and the word “Prey” is in all the titles. I’ve become a solid Sandford fan over the years and have read his other books featuring…
Continue Reading 
Shocking Tesla Truths – A Perspective
By Steve Larsen |
Those following this newsletter know of my Tesla involvement. I’m a car guy. My initial unpremeditated purchase of the Tesla Model 3 happened in early 2020. No long study or evaluation. Just boom. I wrote about that experience in May 2020. For context, you should read about it here. In late 2021/early 2022 the new…
Continue Reading 
A One-of-a-Kind Journey
By Steve Larsen |
After participating in an international riding competition as a member of the Arizona Precision Motorcycle Drill Team and taking second out of 15 teams, our group of riders split up to ride back to Phoenix from Nashville, TN. The competition had been held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Teams from the USA and Canada had…
Continue Reading 
Best Books of 2022 – My ‘must read’ list
By Steve Larsen |
This year I read 61 books, about ten more than average, roughly equally split between fiction and non-fiction. As I get older, the number has begun to creep up. I’ve always been a reader. A speed-reading class in high school gave me techniques for increasing speed and comprehension, and I still occasionally use some of…
Continue Reading The True Saga of Indian Motorcycle: A Tale of Triumph and Tragedy!
By Steve Larsen |
I’ve just finished Frank J. O’Connell’s book, Jump First, Think Fast, and found it more fun, interesting, and inspiring than I had thought possible. I’ve known Frank and his wife Barb for more than twenty-five years. There was never a doubt Frank’s life and career would make a great story. However, Frank’s collaboration with writer…
Continue Reading Spain, Andorra, Portugal: A Scenic Journey Not to be Missed
By Steve Larsen |
In all, we spent 21 days away from Phoenix. From Sept 20 th to October 10th. Roughly 1,600 miles on a rented 2022 BMW 1250GS with Maggie navigating driver Kim Marin’s rental car, mostly following the seven 1250GS rental bikes with nine passengers across 3 countries. The weather was highly cooperative, the roads amazing and…
Continue Reading The Diamond as a House of Worship: A Look at the Church of Baseball
By Steve Larsen |
Halfway into Ron Shelton’s book “The Church of Baseball,” we were gifted tickets to the Diamondbacks/Phillies game at Chase Field on August 29. As we drove downtown, I reflected on the book’s influence on how I may see the upcoming game. Shelton’s recounting of his minor league career revealed aspects of the game that had…
Continue Reading Are we that different?
By Steve Larsen |
A recent exchange of emails with a good and thoughtful man on the opposite end of the political divide from me concluded with “We’re soooooo far apart….” It’s been bothering me for days, mostly as I don’t think it is true. Not for him and me, and not for most Americans. On most of the…
Continue Reading Pseudoscience, Part 1
By Steve Larsen |
For the past ten years my interest in diminishing the impact of psychics and pseudoscience has grown. I wrote a newsletter about scary psychics earlier this year. Few groups stand up for reason and truth – there should be more. The good ones, like the one mentioned below, needs and deserves our support. The Center…
Continue Reading 
The NSX story
By Steve Larsen |
A few weeks ago my cousin, Kathy Magee, posted an old photo on FB of me standing beside my new Mazda RX-7 parked on her parent’s farm. Dave Murra is in the background. In my twenties with a permed head of hair, one of my fondest memories is explaining the features of this unusual vehicle…
Continue Reading Low Grades – High Achievement
By Steve Larsen |
No one told me, in my school life grades 1 – 10, I was smart. It was quite the opposite. No IQ test, just the underlying assumption that, I was “slow.” My mother never gave up on me, but suffered years of my ambivalent disinterest in school, barely passing grades, and non-stop lectures from teachers…
Continue Reading 
Know anyone?
By Steve Larsen |
Do you know someone who’s experienced the loss of a child, grandchild, parent or sibling? Allow me to point you/them to the MISS Foundation, a wonderful group, brilliantly led by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore. This group is like a down comforter for people caught in a cold, dark room of grief. Here is how I met…
Continue Reading 
Pricing collector cars
By Steve Larsen |
My good friend and motorcycle riding buddy, Philip Richter, fritters away some of his free time by putting his thoughts about cars and the car market into a newsletter. In fact, Philip’s “Turtle Garage” inspired my newsletter. My readers who like cars are going to find Philip’s April 1 newsletter fascinating. It ranges from old…
Continue Reading 
So SLAP me
By Steve Larsen |
Because I subscribe to a variety of websites and have a good-sized group of Facebook friends linked more by shared love of family, motorcycles and cars than political affiliation, I run across my fair share of questionable news reports. Whether they are conspiracy theories or just scary threats to which one should pay attention, a…
Continue Reading Attempt at a humorous neighborhood update (March 11, 2022)
By Steve Larsen |
As the temperatures have gotten reasonable, more and more neighbors are out and about. I see you walking, doing yard work, planting trees, painting, and giving the pets some exercise. Things have been happening, so if you’ve not already heard it all through the grapevine, let me bring you up to speed and perhaps, get…
Continue Reading 
Keep it, trade it or sell it?
By Steve Larsen |
When our 2014 Audi Q5 passed 75,000 miles, (it has now surpassed 100,000), I began to get nervous. On the one hand, the warranty was gone, so repair costs would fall on us. On the other hand, this had been one of the best cars we ever owned. We purchased it in 2014, buying into…
Continue Reading 
Best success correlation ever
By Steve Larsen |
After nine of them, I know a good bit about starting companies. After investing in at least twenty, I spot founders with a high success likelihood pretty quickly. An author I admire, Taylor Stevens, recently penned a newsletter nailing one of those elusive success factors brilliantly. For her, it is all about success in writing…
Continue Reading 
Love another Tesla? What if it’s PLAID?
By Steve Larsen |
When I bought the Tesla Model 3 in 2019, as I wrote about here, I had no plans to fall in love with it. I’ve had the good fortune of owning several of the most iconic cars in the world, and still have a couple left. My expectations for the Model 3, a popular, mass-produced…
Continue Reading 
Scary Psychics
By Steve Larsen |
Recent explorations into ethical questions have led me down a variety of rabbit holes, eventually to the whole psychic phenomenon and people claiming to be mediums and able to predict the future. One fascinating character is Mark Edward. I watched a 90-minute presentation where he explained how he and others in the “business” of psychic…
Continue Reading 
BMW R Nine T – Quick Impressions
By Steve Larsen |
During my recent visit to California, my friend Rich and I took a short motorcycle ride to explore some of the wonderful twisty roads north of his home in Escondido. I rode his new BMW R Nine T the first half of the ride and his big 2019 BMW 1250 GS-A during the return. After…
Continue Reading 
Wildlife out to get you
By Steve Larsen |
My good friend, Rich Marin, wrote recently in his daily newsletter about concerns he and his neighbors have regarding the wildlife with which they co-exist in the canyons around Escondido, CA. His fear centers most on packs of coyotes attacking pets, but includes mountain lions, rattlesnakes, deer, and gophers. Our move to the southwest happened…
Continue Reading 
Ethics Class Part 2: How it went
By Steve Larsen |
My nerves were on edge as I took the wheel of Rich Marin’s Tesla Model X. We were driving from his Escondido hilltop home to old town San Diego for an early dinner. The car wasn’t what was worrying me. My issue was about after dinner when we would drive to the University of San…
Continue Reading 
Two Terrific Books
By Steve Larsen |
I’ve been on a reading tear the past few months. Of the dozen or so I’ve read, two stand out in my mind as books my readers would enjoy and the third gets an “honorable mention.” The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens. This novel takes place in Minnesota (Austin, Minneapolis, some northern suburbs), is…
Continue Reading 
Century Agave: Out with a bang
By Steve Larsen |
Pictured below and to the right is the Century plant at the front of our home here in Phoenix. You can see it is near the end of its life because it has sent up a 9-foot tall stalk, laden with flowers that have begun to blossom. The Century Plant is one of the most…
Continue Reading 
Business Ethics: An Oxymoron?
By Steve Larsen |
My friend, Rich Marin, has invited me to teach at one of his graduate business school classes in San Diego, on the subject of Evaluating and Using Business Ethics. While looking forward to this, it’s forced me to take several actions. The first was to find a company around which to build an appropriate case…
Continue Reading 
Not an ordinary gift
By Steve Larsen |
This past year (2021) one of our special days was at Christmas when a significant percentage of our relatives on Maggie’s side of the family spent the day at our house. After my nephew Robert (Diana’s oldest) moved to Tucson and married Anya, these holiday gatherings have morphed into an Arizona family tradition. The day…
Continue Reading Aggressive MC Riding for Safety
By Steve Larsen |
I pay little attention to posted speed limits when riding my motorcycle. Do I frequently exceed posted speed limits? Probably. Do I care? No. When riding on streets with automobiles, my attention is focused solely on minimizing risk and staying alive. I would prefer a speeding ticket to spending time in a hospital or worse…
Continue Reading Thoughts on two films: American Folk and Don’t Look Up
By Steve Larsen |
By chance, I watched two movies in the same week that, upon reflection, created some remarkable and fun contrasts. The first, AMERICAN FOLK (2017) is a movie on Amazon Prime ($0.99 rental). You can also watch it free (with commercials) on other streaming services like Netflix. The second, Don’t Look Up (2021) is generating a…
Continue Reading Goodbye Chris Locke
By Steve Larsen |
News reached me yesterday my friend, Chris Locke passed away on Dec 21. Chris had a remarkably large impact on my life and the way I thought, during my critical transition from working for large companies like IBM and AT&T to early stage startup companies. The Internet was just a baby learning to crawl. Chris…
Continue Reading Trains, Planes, and Automobiles
By Steve Larsen |
One significant misperception shared by many family and friends about us is that “Steve is the writer.” The truth is when we met, my writing skills were non-existent while Maggie had been employed as a professional writer for over seven years, having graduated near the top of her class at Boston University with a degree…
Continue Reading HOLIDAY GREETINGS FROM PHOENIX
By Steve Larsen |
We love getting the annual newsletters updating us on the lives of so many friends. This year I thought I’d take a crack at it myself, especially since this newsletter format makes it so easy. Here’s the 2021 Steve Larsen Holiday Newsletter: I know you need to start by talking about kids. So, our two…
Continue Reading Confessions of a Republican Political Operative
By Steve Larsen |
In Dubai last month I met the principals of an exciting Tempe, AZ start-up company, ZEV. The CEO, Carolyn Maury, and her co-founders were all at GITEX Global. ZEV converts fleets of gas-powered vans into electric vehicles quickly and at a low cost. What they’re doing is brilliant. As they have grown, they have sought…
Continue Reading Mexico’s Day of the Dead with MotoDiscovery
By Steve Larsen |
Most US residents have little understanding of one of the major celebrations of our neighbors to the south in Mexico. The Day of the Dead event (Desfile de Día de Muertos) is one of the oldest Pagan holidays and a majority of Mexican people wholeheartedly embrace and participate in the multi-day event. It mixes sadness…
Continue Reading A week in Dubai
By Steve Larsen |
Earlier this month I accompanied members of the Arizona Commerce Authority to the GITEX trade show in Dubai, UAE. This is a global technology conference the size of CES or the COMDEX Show in Las Vegas, although with a marked business focus. I arrived a day early and stayed a few days after the show…
Continue Reading IN MY SPARE TIME – I’M A JUDGE
By Steve Larsen |
After I left my position as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, an opportunity presented itself with the Arizona Commerce Authority. My first and continuing role there has been as a judge for the annual Arizona Innovation Challenge. For that, I review applications from a dozen or so early-stage start-up companies competing for…
Continue Reading Harley Pan America
By Steve Larsen |
On Saturday, Sept 25, I joined a few friends in Flagstaff, AZ at the Overland Expo West, an event growing exponentially over the past few years to include vendors from across the outdoor experience world. Represented were every truck and off-road-oriented vehicle, motorcycle companies, tents, yurts, lights, knives, water purification, backpacks, and hundreds of exhibitors…
Continue Reading Page after page: About my reading
By Steve Larsen |
My oldest daughter and I are working to get better at recommending books to each other. We quickly realized my old and new favorites might not be right for her and vice versa. Recommending someone read a book is different from telling someone about a book you liked. To do better at finding books we’d…
Continue Reading Fasting Might Save Your Life
By Steve Larsen |
Recently I went on a 14-day health retreat in California. The following is what that was about, why I went and what I learned. Thinking an additional perspective might be useful, following the report I’ve provided a brief summary of how my thinking about fasting and health has changed since I was much younger. From…
Continue Reading Good heads deserve great helmets
By Steve Larsen |
Few decisions are agonized over by motorcyclists as much as helmet choices. There’s color and type (full face, modular, shorty, off-road, touring specific, etc.), as well as construction material and features. Women shopping for swimsuits struggle less to find the “perfect fit” than motorcyclists selecting a helmet. Arai, supposedly, fits those with longer, more oval-shaped…
Continue Reading Read these! or not.
By Steve Larsen |
Reading and listening to books helps me pass a lot of activities here in the Phoenix heat. You might have seen my take on Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by now, but if not, it is here. I loved it so much I read it twice and ordered all of Harari’s other books. I’ve…
Continue Reading Fifty Years of Lotus Elan ownership over
By Steve Larsen |
Yesterday (August 7, 2021), I had a delightful FaceTime conversation with the gentleman who purchased my Lotus Elan from the dealer in California who’d acquired it at the Gooding Auction earlier this year. It is now on its way to his forever home in the UK to join a small collection of elite cars. The…
Continue Reading Book Review – Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
By Steve Larsen |
It’s been at least twenty years since I’ve been so moved by a single book. Since reading “Sapiens: A brief history of humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari a few weeks ago, I’ve recommended it to many friends. I bought a copy and gave it to one friend, as I value his opinion so much and…
Continue Reading You Gotta Sell
By Steve Larsen |
My friend Rich Marin’s May 30th newsletter/Blog post, which you can read here, is about his grade school sales efforts which were focused on winning free trips to summer camp as a kid. It made me think of my own early introduction to sales. When having lunch with my friend and fellow Arizona Commerce Authority…
Continue Reading Book: That Time of Year: A Minnesota Life, by Garrison Keillor
By Steve Larsen |
My earliest memory of Garrison Keillor is a Minnesota Public Radio morning radio show that he created and hosted. It was a mash-up of music, stories, poems, and news, unlike anything else. It kept me company as I showered, brushed my teeth, and then drove the long ride to work in the morning. I always…
Continue Reading Never too late – So long, Eric
By Steve Larsen |
We’re coming up on nearly 30 years since our family was forced to say goodbye to my son, Eric. The need to convey to those who’ve never met him the joy he brought to our small family during his two too short years in this world was eclipsed by the enormity of that task. We…
Continue Reading Yamaha’s new Ténéré 700, a Suzuki DR350S and two Harleys
By Steve Larsen |
This is a story of my testing the new-for-2021, Yamaha Ténéré 700, an on/off-road motorcycle. But first, here’s a bit of my history with this category of bikes. If you’re lucky, I’ll work a couple of Harley-Davidsons into the story, too. These days I love reviewing a new bike like this without an editor forcing…
Continue Reading Top TV Pick #16: Tony Robbins: I AM NOT YOUR GURU (Netflix)
By Steve Larsen |
It was in high school when a series of classic motivational literature found its way to me. It was after I’d begun to see there was a path for me to succeed in school. The books told me I wasn’t trapped by my circumstances. They said no one but me could decide how I wanted…
Continue Reading Top TV Pic # 15: Himalaya Calling and Pedro Mota’s YouTube videos
By Steve Larsen |
Following my recommendation of a series of YouTube videos made by Pedro Mota, two of my friends responded with how much they liked an Amazon Prime documentary, “Himalaya Calling – Overland to the highest passes in the world.” They were right! I’ve watched three of the four episodes, and they are great. Plus, these have…
Continue Reading Top TV Pick 14: Hunt for the Wilderpeople
By Steve Larsen |
Do you ever wish for a compelling but simple story having no agenda? Something that every minute you watch you just smile, and say to yourself, “OMG, this is just so good!” If so, watch “Hunt for the Wilderpeople.” The story here is funny and touching, the scenery spectacular, and the actors create strong, believable…
Continue Reading Top TV Pick # 9: Social Media and Anonymity
By Steve Larsen |
Andy Kessler in the Wall Street Journal on January 24, 2021, suggested that ending anonymity could fix social media. Yesterday, Feb. 1, 2021, Mike Masnick wrote a rebuttal to Andy’s column in techdirt, saying it was a bad idea and it wouldn’t help. Here’s the thing, they’re both right in some ways and also wrong…
Continue Reading TV Top Picks # 13: Engineering the Future: 3 Episode Series
By Steve Larsen |
The first of these 3 one-hour films is on wind power. I was instantly hooked. In just over 50 minutes, you get amazing views into the interior workings of massively large wind turbines; learn extraordinary details on how they are made and what it takes to locate them. At first I was a bit put…
Continue Reading Photographs: Dakar 2021
By Steve Larsen |
Ten years ago I tracked the 2011 Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile for The Overland Journal Magazine. In the article I said the Dakar Rally was to dirt bike riders what The Vatican is to Catholics, what Hollywood is to movie buffs and the Grand Ole Opry is to country music lovers. Bringing together…
Continue Reading Were they that high?
By Steve Larsen |
When visiting John Binder, one of the “old pharts” in Frank Del Monte’s orbit of British bike aficionados, I discovered a distinguished set of classic motorcycles and a spotless garage/workshop. Holding 45 motorcycles at one point, John’s recently cut his collection to just over a half dozen exceptionally special and historic bikes. These are carefully…
Continue Reading Know Thyself: A Riding Skills Story
By Steve Larsen |
After reading of a harrowing motorcycle adventure tour outside of the US in which several bikes crashed and riders were hurt, I circulated the article to several friends who lead motorcycle tours for a living. The task of assessing someone’s self-reported riding skills before signing them up for a tour is a tough problem for…
Continue Reading Embracing Ambiguity
By Steve Larsen |
My good friend and riding buddy, Rich Marin, writes a daily blog post/newsletter called The Old Lone Ranger. Rich is highly disciplined and writes 1,000 words, every day. Rich and another friend, Philip Richter, inspired me to start my newsletter. Philip’s site and blog is the Turtle Garage. On Saturday, January 9, 2021, Rich’s post…
Continue Reading TV Top Pick #12: Dirty Money (Netflix)
By Steve Larsen |
I found DIRTY MONEY, a new series on Netflix, shortly after watching the amazingly funny Netflix send-off of 2020 called “Death to 2020.” If you’ve not watched it yet, do so. Death to 2020 resulted in at least a half-dozen belly laughs and more subtle snickers than I could count. But now onto Dirty Money.…
Continue Reading Four non-fiction book favorites from 2020
By Steve Larsen |
Reading books is an addiction which began for me in grade school and only in my busiest years have I not been in its clutches. You will learn my top four non-fiction books for 2020 in this newsletter, but not before I make you wade through the story of how I became a reader. By…
Continue Reading TV Top Pick #11: The Trial of the Chicago 7
By Steve Larsen |
I finally got around to watching this after a walking buddy recommended it, saying “It’s written and directed by Aaron Sorkin – you will love it.” He didn’t mention it also features fascinating performances by Eddie Redmayne and Sacha Baron Cohen. He was right. It is excellent. If you were born in the 50’s era…
Continue Reading Christie and Eric
By Steve Larsen |
In the past few weeks, anticipating a visit from my “long-lost” daughter, her husband and our two grandchildren, my mind kept drifting to a painful place. At some point in our reconnection as a family, Christie may want to know more about the brother she had but never knew and will never know. Little Eric…
Continue Reading Precision and a McLaren MP4-12C
By Steve Larsen |
This morning I drove the McLaren to the dealer for its annual service. Not having driven the McLaren in awhile, I became aware of its precision in a way I’d missed before. When attempting to justify how and why a car like this is worth double what cars with similar performance numbers, I realized that…
Continue Reading Disproportionately High Value #4: Polaris Slingshot
By Steve Larsen |
Not everyone knows I own a Polaris Slingshot. Fewer still have any idea how or why, but I’m about to tell you. But before I start, I need to make a point. No, it is not a motorcycle. While it may be called a motorcycle from a legal standpoint, it does not handle like a…
Continue Reading TV Top Pick #10: Mars
By Steve Larsen |
I’m finally watching a 2016-2018 two-season television series called Mars. It’s on Netflix (and Amazon) and consists of seven 60-minute episodes in the first season and six in the second. I find it captivating. The premise is alluring but it’s the composition that makes it so stunning. The show combines documentary-style science reporting taking place…
Continue Reading TV Top Pick # 9: Motorcycle Touring Movies
By Steve Larsen |
There are motorcycling adventure movies floating around that deserve attention from my riding readers. “Long Way Up” recounts the latest adventures of actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on AppleTV. Then there’s Ride Report: 10,000 Miles to Rio, an independently produced and directed film by two Las Vegas guys with minimal riding experience who set…
Continue Reading TV Top Pick #8: The Glorias
By Steve Larsen |
When I was growing up, the name Gloria Steinem was mostly used derisively by many in my family, if she was mentioned at all. This 2020 documentary movie, shows how childhood experiences influenced this iconic writer, activist, and organizer for women’s rights. Irrespective of how you feel about her politics and causes, I highly recommend…
Continue Reading TV Top Pick # 7: The Queen’s Gambit
By Steve Larsen |
By now you’ll know my top picks aren’t timely. My recommendations are along the lines of “this is something you really should watch and why,” versus trying to keep up with what is hot or trending. So this recommendation to watch The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, is probably a bit late. But here is what…
Continue Reading TV Top Pick #6: The Newsroom
By Steve Larsen |
Let me be clear up front, I am not recommending you go back and watch this Aaron Sorkin created TV drama from 2012-2014. However, there is one scene I’d like you to check out. The scene features Jeff Daniels in his role of news anchor Will McAvoy, being interviewed with two politicians at a local…
Continue Reading Getting a great job – Part 2 of 2 (Interviews)
By Steve Larsen |
Much of the process I’ve used for turning an interview into a job offer comes from Jeffrey Allen. His book is absolutely brilliant and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I have purchased this book at least a dozen times over the years and always try to have a copy around. I used it personally…
Continue Reading Getting a great job – Part 1 of 2
By Steve Larsen |
Over the past 25 years, good friends, nieces and nephews and one of my daughters, have come to me asking for advice on their job searches. For some of them, who’ve taken what I’ve told them to heart, it has worked very well for them. It’s worked so well for one of my daughters, she’s…
Continue Reading TV Top Pick #5: Behind the Curve
By Steve Larsen |
The documentary film, Behind the Curve (2019), can be seen on Netflix. It introduces us to a growing group of people who believe in a conspiracy suppressing the fact that the earth is not round, but actually flat. Many people, like me, assume things like the Flat Earth Society were long gone. But they are…
Continue Reading Top Tier TV Pick #4 – What the Constitution Means to Me
By Steve Larsen |
“What the Constitution Means to Me” is a video adaptation of an award-winning play (Pulitzer Prize finalist and received two Tony Awards) and it makes the transition to film well. It centers on Heidi Schreck as a 15 year old who earned her college tuition by competing in Constitutional debate competitions, sponsored by the VFW…
Continue Reading Top Tier TV Pick #3 – Good Omens
By Steve Larsen |
When you find yourself watching a mini-series 4 times, it probably means you liked it. Maggie and I rarely share the same affection for television programs. So when we are both uncompromisingly enthusiastic about a production, you can be sure it’s special. And Good Omens is quite special. Here’s why. Besides a 1930’s Bentley, it…
Continue Reading Mom, look! A Barbie Boat
By Steve Larsen |
Living in New York in the early 90’s I caught a clip on television of a new radical boat from Bombardier’s Sea-Doo division called the “Speedster.” This jet boat, weighing less than 1500 lbs., generated over 170 horsepower from twin Rotax marine rotary engines. The clip showed the boat launching from ramp-like waves and flying…
Continue Reading Damn science stuff
By Steve Larsen |
In today’s Arizona Republic newspaper one of our local columnists alluded to a certain political attack on science. Reports that “science got X or Y wrong” on topics from global warming to Covid-19 are frequent, leading me to conclude many people have a deep misunderstanding of what science is, actually. Hopefully, I can shed some…
Continue Reading But how do we know it is true?
By Steve Larsen |
In response to an email suggestion to watch the documentary “Totally Under Control,” a friend replied saying: “Thanks! Sounds interesting…but I have to ask the question: is it true? How do we know?” With all the charges of “fake news” and media distrust, it turns out the methods for determining credibility and levels of truthfulness from…
Continue Reading Top Tier TV Pick #2 – My Octopus Teacher
By Steve Larsen |
Craig Foster filmed and narrates the underwater adventure “My Octopus Teacher,” focused on a single subject, an amazing little creature. Naturalist photographers normally stay in the background. Not in this film and it makes a wonderful difference. You’ll come away uplifted and knowing far more about lives much more connected to us than you might…
Continue Reading Top Tier TV Pick #1 – Our Planet
By Steve Larsen |
Recently I’m finding myself awash in too many options for what to watch on my television – and we don’t even have cable! I’m learning that shows recommended by friends always seem to be the best. So, with that in mind, I’ve decided to become a bit more outgoing in my recommendations for things I’m…
Continue Reading Disproportionately High Value # 3: JIS Screw Drivers
By Steve Larsen |
When I wrote for Motorcycle Consumer News magazine, I watched for products to enhance a rider’s ability to enjoy, maintain or repair their motorcycles. When I found, bought and wrote about JIS screwdrivers, it generated a great deal of reader mail. As regular subscribers to my newsletter know, this series is about items or experiences…
Continue Reading Disproportionate High Value # 2: The Week Magazine
By Steve Larsen |
After retiring, I stopped renewing subscriptions to 5-6 monthly business magazines, daily delivery of the WSJ, NYT and half a dozen trade publications. Electronic versions have not caught on with me, so call me a journalistic dinosaur. I don’t care. I missed BusinessWeek and the WSJ Weekend Edition the most. Then a friend gave me…
Continue Reading Disproportionate High Value # 1: JURA Coffee Maker
By Steve Larsen |
Remember the JURA and TESLA newsletters? Earlier this week my friend, Roger Meinershagen told me of his and his wife’s frustration in shopping for a JURA coffee maker. As we talked about the machine we’d purchased six years ago, I found myself putting our JURA Impressa C60 into a rare class of acquisitions: things which…
Continue Reading The Social Dilemma: You write, I read
By Steve Larsen |
My newsletter reviewing “The Social Dilemma,” a Netflix documentary on Monday, Oct. 5, generated numerous responses. The one below is from a Facebook employee and more than that, a guy as close to family to me as you can get. Chris Hawkins is my daughter’s longest and (IMHO) best boyfriend ever. They live together in…
Continue Reading Movie Analysis: The Social Dilemma
By Steve Larsen |
Most readers know my newsletter is not a platform for political, religious or social commentary. This one may be a small exception. Although not political or religious, there is a bit of social commentary here. The documentary film, The Social Dilemma, is eye-opening, explaining how Facebook, Google, Instagram and other social media platforms work. I…
Continue Reading Five things Social Media does, like it or not
By Steve Larsen |
Yesterday my friend Frank Del Monte recommended a new documentary film called The Social Dilemma. Maggie and I watched it last night and were stunned. If you’ve ever used Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc. it explains how these platforms work and why you see what you see. It is an exceptionally well done film and does…
Continue Reading Vote like our future depends on it – it very well might
By Steve Larsen |
Today I was surprised to see an opinion piece, a letter to the editor, written by my niece, published in The Arizona Daily Star, the Tucson newspaper. Alona Sukhina came to our family when she was a very young girl, when her older sister married my nephew, Robert. Their entire family, including Alona’s parents, are…
Continue Reading Are you a coffee snob? Wanna be one?
By Steve Larsen |
It is with a good deal of apprehension that I make this confession, but reality can no longer be overlooked: I’ve become a coffee snob. The story of my descent along this slippery slope will either save you or change your life for the better. Given my Scandinavian heritage, coffee played an integral role in…
Continue Reading What You Said about What I said
By Steve Larsen |
Occasionally feedback on my newsletters and resulting conversations are more informative and meaningful than the original piece. The “In Praise of Talent” newsletter seems to be one of those. Here is some of the feedback, a day or so after publication of the newsletter with its special nod to photographers. First, I got the following…
Continue Reading Have You Ever Met a Lazy Genius?
By Steve Larsen |
Odd, but I’m becoming increasingly sensitive to remarks praising equipment or someone’s “God-given talent,” particularly in areas where I have experience. Whether watching a consistent top finisher at a track day and hearing other riders speculate about engine horsepower, advanced suspension set up and tire choices or seeing a circulating Facebook video lauding the “talent”…
Continue Reading What we fear, and why?
By Steve Larsen |
On a Sunday earlier this spring, before the whole Coronavirus issue, Maggie and I were hiking in the valleys surrounding nearby North Mountain, in Phoenix, AZ. As we walked a couple engaged in a vigorous discussion passed us, going in the opposite direction. They were speaking Russian, a language I’ve learned to recognize. They spoke…
Continue Reading I love This Guy. And Today’s His Birthday
By Steve Larsen |
A very good friend of mine turns 70 years old on August 19, 2020. I turn 70 a few weeks later, in September of 2020. As you can imagine, I’ve had great fun at his expense, chiding him unmercifully on every previous birthday, about his advancing age. And what can he do? Facts are facts,…
Continue Reading Riders! You really should read Frazier’s Book
By Steve Larsen |
I’ve just finished Dr. Gregory W. Frazier’s latest book, Adventure Motorcyclist: Frazier Shrugged. (Order from Sound Rider.) The book is a collection of Frazier’s columns, many from the pages of CityBike Magazine, where Frazier was a long-term contributor, before the publication folded its tent in 2019. Although it’s likely they appeared in many others as…
Continue Reading A couple of good motorcycle movies while the Coronavirus Quarantine goes on
By Steve Larsen |
On a Zoom call with my motorcycle riding buddies earlier this week, my friend Ed Deutsch recommended the documentary, “Ten Thousand Miles to Rio” on Amazon Prime. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of how many times I’d headed out unprepared on a motorcycle adventure. Granted, I never sat around an apartment…
Continue Reading Why Being Laid Off Can Be Good News
By Steve Larsen |
One of my best friends has a deep knowledge of cars and motorcycles, so we always have plenty to discuss. Recently, though, our conversation drifted to corporate life. His employer has been promoting him. From leading engineering projects, he now manages people and that includes letting people go. This is disturbing and is upsetting him.…
Continue Reading First speeding ticket in my Lotus
By Steve Larsen |
With my purchase of a 1969 Lotus Elan in 1971, I became the only Lotus owner in Rochester, MN. As such, I was occasionally pulled over by the police, mostly to answer questions like, “What kind of a car is this?” or “Who makes Lotus?” However, when I tried to outrun one of those cops,…
Continue Reading Death Valley Days: I fought the law and we both won
By Steve Larsen |
I could fill a book with stories of my interactions with cops – nearly always on my motorcycle and typically with city traffic police or highway patrol officers. In retrospect, my view of our relationship was somewhat warped. Me: A strong desire to ride at far higher speeds than the posted limits and Them: To…
Continue Reading Who got the best deal?
By Steve Larsen |
The purchase of one of my dream cars, a Jaguar XJ6 sedan, did not work out entirely as anticipated, but in the end, everyone was happy. Buying the nearly ten-year-old Jaguar from a local used car lot was easy. Making it go away was a tad more difficult. The euphoria I felt when it left…
Continue Reading Macho Hubris Bites Again
By Steve Larsen |
To celebrate our first anniversary, Maggie and I planned a trip to the Florida Keys in March of 1983. As recently certified SCUBA divers, we were looking forward to a two-tank dive in the legendary underwater park near Key Largo, the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. This park covers over 175 nautical square miles…
Continue Reading A response to “One Bike to Rule them All”
By Steve Larsen |
After publishing my newsletter about on “One Bike to Rule Them All,” I got emails from fellow riders on their experiences owning multiple motorcycles. Kaz Uzunoglu, a very good friend and global motorcycle tour guide extraordinaire sent me a rationale for the six bikes in his garage. It is so good, I’ve decided to share…
Continue Reading Never heard it sound like that
By Steve Larsen |
My younger brother, Leif Larsen, has made a variety of unorthodox and sometimes unusual choices in his life. One of those decisions resulted in him living in Russia and Lithuania for over 20 years. But no matter where he lives, he’s always on the lookout for “a deal.” When he spots one, it’s nearly impossible…
Continue Reading How Ginger got her name
By Steve Larsen |
Penning this story, my first thought for a title was: “When I learned I’d lost and would never win again – ever.” But that is too long. Let me tell you how Ginny became Ginger. When our daughter began school in Pasadena, CA, her first teacher, the villain in this story, would change our world…
Continue Reading Yeah, I’ll probably quit
By Steve Larsen |
In 1989 my time with AT&T in Los Angeles was coming to an end. They’d given up the idea of being major players in the computer business, the primary reason for hiring me. Then a recruiter called about a new stealth company financed by IBM, CBS and Sears and I learned an important lesson –…
Continue Reading Blue Diamond, Black Diamond, what’s the difference?
By Steve Larsen |
In the mid-1980s, while at AT&T, I extended a trip in Colorado to go skiing. I chose a spot called Hidden Valley Resort. It wasn’t so much for tourists, but close to Denver, so ideal for one-day trips by the locals. I had no clue that bravado, stupidity, chauvinism and hubris could amass to cataclysmic…
Continue Reading The Most Expensive Golf Clubs Ever
By Steve Larsen |
Here in Arizona, our house overlooks a golf course, as do 84.4% of all homes in Phoenix (just kidding). But neither Maggie or I play. In fact, if you asked any of my golfing friends “Does Steve play golf?” the most likely response would be “Not so much.” This story is not about golfing, although…
Continue Reading Oh Shoot! Shoot, Shoot, Shoot
By Steve Larsen |
When Ginger was a baby, my stint as Vice President of Marketing at Open Systems came to a close. We needed insurance while I was between jobs, so Maggie went back to work and we agreed I would stay home with Ginny (which was what we called her then). How she went from Ginny to…
Continue Reading The One Bike to Rule Them All
By Steve Larsen |
My good friend, Rich Marin, in a situation where one bit of bad news was followed by another, flipped it around and came out smelling like a rose and the owner of a like-new BMW 1250GSA at a smokin’ deal. Rich appears as enthralled with his new GS as I am with my Tesla (Falling…
Continue Reading Yeah, try that backward and one-handed
By Steve Larsen |
One of my “beats” when writing for Motorcycle Consumer News was training schools. I loved going to them, ate up learning new riding techniques, and enjoyed writing about them. Things I’d always considered impossible on a motorcycle, at least for me, turned out to be doable with expert instruction, patience, practice, and a building block…
Continue Reading Yeah, but do you have a finger from a dead pirate?
By Steve Larsen |
Our home in Pasadena had become the “go to” spot for Thanksgiving (and occasionally Christmas) for Maggie’s sister and the Stickney family. We loved having Diana, Joe and their children around, and Ginger was in heaven with all her Arizona cousins on her turf. I’m not sure where the idea came from, but it didn’t…
Continue Reading Finding the Best Single Malt Scotch in Scotland
By Steve Larsen |
In 1994, we lived in NY and decided to try a home exchange. Agreeing to exchange our home just north of NYC with a family living in Scotland required reaching a compromise on our trip objectives: for Maggie, it was seeing castles, churches, and tartan fabrics. My goal was to discover the best scotch whisky…
Continue Reading Tragedy and Comedy: Oh, So very close
By Steve Larsen |
In high school, my daughter Ginger was cast in a theatrical presentation of the Sound of Music. She threw herself into the two roles she played, greatly enjoying all the rehearsals and tasks associated with getting the production ready for an audience. After opening night, she had issues with her performance and came to me,…
Continue Reading A quick story of shared humanity
By Steve Larsen |
My friend, Rich Marin, posts a blog every day. I greatly admire his discipline. Reacting to riots in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing, on Monday he wrote about his brush with riots as a Cornell college student and drew parallels with those going on around his family members. It reminded me of an…
Continue Reading Dakar Tune-up Ride and Lessons Learned
By Steve Larsen |
Late in 2010, my plans to travel to South America for the 2011 Dakar Rally across Argentina and Chile had been finalized. While I felt mostly ready, I decided one more challenging tune-up test ride was in order to ensure my riding skills were suitably sharp. This is the story of my Dakar preparatory ride …
Continue Reading Martinis and smoke – one magical mixture
By Steve Larsen |
Dr. Ed Banner gave me a glimpse into a part of the world of which I was mostly unaware, but in ways that made me feel there was nothing I couldn’t accomplish. We were vastly different in age and light-years apart in economic and social status, but he treated me as an equal and friend. …
Continue Reading Yeah, this is roughing it!
By Steve Larsen |
In the early 1970s, after purchasing my Lotus Elan, I was working at Schaak Electronics in Rochester Minnesota. We were suffering yet another long and exceptionally cold winter. Little did I know, the following spring I was going to experience one of those self-realizations and experiences that would forever change my life. Apache Mall was…
Continue Reading Longest Letter-to-the-Editor, Ever
By Steve Larsen |
Keith Martin’s Sports Car Market Magazine is the most respected publication for the collector car market. Period. In the July 2020 issue, they published my letter to the editor, in which I commented on an article appearing in their June 2020 issue. Readers of my newsletters know I’ll always use 2,000 words when 200 would…
Continue Reading Falling in Love: with a Tesla
By Steve Larsen |
Okay, no surprise, I’m a car guy. Everyone knows it. I’ll not clog this newsletter with information on my collection of three of the most iconic cars of all time: a 1969 Lotus Elan, a 2002 Acura NSX and a 2014 McLaren MP4-12C, although the McLaren makes an appearance later in this story. You may…
Continue Reading Aghh! I thought it was COVID-19. It was worse.
By Steve Larsen |
On Thursday night, May 7, indigestion flared in my gut. It kept getting worse with other symptoms developing. Little did I know, two trips to the Emergency Room (ER) and two 3-day hospital stays were about to follow. When my indigestion discomfort was joined by a racing pulse (95+ just lying in bed), dropping blood…
Continue Reading Copper Canyon: There was more to the story
By Steve Larsen |
On March 29, you got a newsletter about my motorcycle trip to Mexico’s Copper Canyon. If you need a reminder, it is here. While helpful to know some of the details of the trip, it’s not a requirement for appreciating the story in this newsletter, about something incredible and truly wonderful which happened on the…
Continue Reading Those damn New Yorkers
By Steve Larsen |
When my daughter, Ginger, was in grade school, a company transfer required us to move to New York. Growing up in the Midwest, tales of callous and occasionally duplicitous New Yorkers resulted in our making a cautious integration into the community of Croton-on-Hudson, NY, our new home. One day Ginger came home from school and…
Continue Reading Brent Larsen’s home burned down – family safe
By Steve Larsen |
Ancestry.com began to interest me more the past couple of years. Genealogy projects seem to appear when at a certain age. My cousin on my mother’s side, Ron Herem, begin getting interested about a year before me. His fancy was caught by the history of our family, and he’s made a trip back to Norway…
Continue Reading Epic car trade-off: BMW M5 vs. Acura NSX
By Steve Larsen |
Early in 2000, stories circulated in the automobile universe about an extraordinary new car from BMW called the M5. Journalists and car nuts nicknamed it “the Beast.” At 400 HP and 398 lbs. of torque, it was a rocket ship. With scary 0-60 times and a top speed of 180 mph (with the limiter removed),…
Continue Reading Will the real Steve Larsen please stand?
By Steve Larsen |
Earlier this week, on April 23, I got an email from Steve Larsen in Idaho, saying “My momma went to heaven on Sunday. I thought you might like to read about her.” He gave me a link to her obituary. She was a remarkable woman, and I’ve included the link to her obit at the…
Continue Reading So, time to give up?
By Steve Larsen |
When hearing my business accomplishments lauded over the years, deep down inside, part of me is saying, “Ha! little do they know! It was all due to one simple trick: a willingness to work just a teeny-weeny bit harder than anyone else.” I’d learned working harder isn’t much more difficult, because most people quit so soon. Persistence does not mean you always win at everything. What it does mean is that failure isn’t seen as an end, but as a step in the process. Let me explain.
Continue Reading Finding a Daughter on 23andMe – more of the story
By Steve Larsen |
My very first newsletter (9 newsletters ago) was the story of finding a daughter I did not know about. She found me using 23andMe, reached out and made contact. If you missed that newsletter, you should read it. You will find it here: No doubt several of you have imagined what would have happened if…
Continue Reading Best Motorcycle Mishap Ever
By Steve Larsen |
One of the most humbling experiences of my motorcycle career was attempting Trials Riding. Trials bikes are purpose-built motorcycles supporting a very precise and particular sort of riding competition. The sport is generally referred to as “mototrials” or “motorcycle trials” and is big in Europe, South America and other parts of the world, but has…
Continue Reading Polaris RZR and Rocky Point
By Steve Larsen |
In 2012, I spent 14 days chasing the Dakar Rally as it transversed South America, from Buenos Aires across the Atacama Desert and Andes mountains to Chile, up its coast, then back to Buenos Aires, on the back of a BMW 1200GS motorcycle. On the flight home, I had an epiphany. (Note: This story isn’t…
Continue Reading Newsletter #6: Marin’s book is out
By Steve Larsen |
Late last year I was talking with my friend, Rich Marin. Rich is recently “sort-of” retired. Although moving from New York City where he’s spent most of his career, to his new permanent residence near San Diego a few months back, he’s not yet grasped some of the key aspects of “being retired.” His level…
Continue Reading The original “Subscribe here” request
By Steve Larsen |
Several significant and momentous events in the past couple of years have me wishing I stayed in better touch with my family and friends. I should have maintained my old email newsletter. That newsletter, graciously described as “a horrid, holiday-family summary run amok,” or by others less gracious as “Larsen’s self-promoting hype about his latest…
Continue Reading The Exquisite Copper Canyon and Some Amazing Paintings
By Steve Larsen |
I’ve gotten a few questions about my motorcycle ride in Mexico’s Copper Canyon and its timing, right before my second OH surgery. Here is some background on that trip and most importantly, some of the photographs that led to paintings by my wife, Maggie, who is an artist with a special talent for painting portraits.…
Continue Reading Health Issue (Part 3 of 3): “Oh, oh, something is wrong – no, really wrong.”
By Steve Larsen |
Recovery from my April 2016 OHS (open heart surgery) seemed to be going splendidly except for a persistent cough. It would just not go away. Recovering in San Diego, we consulted respiratory experts at Scripps Memorial Hospital, but no cause was found. Back at Mayo in Phoenix, experts diagnosed it as a throat damaged during…
Continue Reading Health Issues (Part 2 of 3): Yes, they operated on kids back then.
By Steve Larsen |
Face it, at my age (69), a primary topic of conversation with friends relates to health and our various ailments. When younger, this drove me nuts. I swore to never indulge this sort of behavior. But that was before I had health issues to trump nearly everyone elses. My 1965 open-heart surgery, at just short…
Continue Reading Health Issues (Part 1 of 3): You’re not going to believe this!
By Steve Larsen |
Having Open Heart Surgery at 15 years old in the summer of 1965, I became somewhat of a medical anomaly. As unusual and traumatic as that was, I managed to up the ante 50 years later and heart issues have been my primary concern the past few years. I’ve broken this story into 3 short bite size “parts.”
Continue Reading Congratulations! It’s a girl. Oh, and she’s 39 years old.
By Steve Larsen |
My cousin Roger Larsen called me from California, early in 2019: “You sittin’ down, cuz?” he asks. I say I can be. Once seated he blurts out, “You have a daughter!” “I know,” I say. “She lives in California, name of Ginger, did you forget?” Roger responds, “No, you’ve got another one. I just got…
Continue Reading Rupes Bigfoot Ibrid Nano Polisher
By Steve Larsen |
Detailing a motorcycle is not considered a sane activity. Rather, rarely paying attention to the cosmetic condition of one's muddy mount can be a badge of honor. Alternatively, a slow, methodical bike cleaning method allows examining the bike, checking for loose fasteners. It's common to find something needing attention. I've never felt the need for anything beyond normal motorcycle cleaners, a few good rags and some wax, until now.
Continue Reading ClampTite Tool
By Steve Larsen |
The annual SEMA (Special Equipment Market Association) industry trade show draws hundreds of thousands of auto dealers, specialty equipment distributors, installers, retailers and restoration shops to Las Vegas every November. Most appealing to me are smaller vendors who solve specific problems in new and creative ways—especially when it involves motorcycles. A prime example at this year’s SEMA show was ClampTite.
Continue Reading 
Used or Abused: Garage Finds can fool you
By Steve Larsen |
If a preowned bike deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. Bikes that have been sitting awhile may have hidden horrors.
Continue Reading Upping your Game: MotoDiscovery Small-Group Adventure Training
By Steve Larsen |
A six-day trip to Utah hones offroad riding skills and refreshes the soul.
Continue Reading Performance Sunglasses Comparison
By Steve Larsen |
Sunglasses are very important to motorcyclists; they protect our eyes and enhance our riding experience by giving us the best possible view of the road and scenery. It’s not easy to find a good pair. Objective evaluations going beyond vague assertions of “fabulousness” are nearly nonexistent. Most of us likely fall into one of two camps: either we have several sets of cheap sunglasses and assume they’re good enough or, at some point, we invested in a more expensive pair that we believe are pretty good, but have no real data to back it up. This is MCN’s sweet spot—a thorough analysis of issues important to motorcyclists.
Continue Reading 
Surprises Await on the Dalmatian Coast
By Steve Larsen |
A Motorcycle Trek Explores Twists and Turns of a Tumultuous History.
Continue Reading Article on the Design of the 2015 Indian Scout
By Steve Larsen |
Soul of a Legend – MCN-March2015 The March 2015 issue of Motorcycle Consumer News has my story about the design of the new Indian Scout. The original Scout from the 1920’s was such a classic and iconic machine that it seemed to me an almost superhuman task to get the design right in a modern…
Continue Reading The Lotus rebuild project is complete – and I wrote a book about it.
By Steve Larsen |
A Mistress in the Garage by Steve Larsen After owning my Lotus Elan for over 40 years, I finally got around to rebuilding it. This books I made with Blurb, documents the process. It’s not intended for anyone to buy, really, but to document the 15 months of work and the people that helped make…
Continue Reading Elan Static Weight Distribution
By Steve Larsen |
Here is what happened here earlier this month. More than a half dozen Phoenix Lotus Owners (David B., Brett E., Clayton S., Chris H., Larry T., Alain B., Wayne V. and yours truly) gathered in my garage to adjust the static weight distribution on my recently rebuilt 1969 Elan. After 30 minutes of just staring…
Continue Reading On order: 2015 Polaris RZR XP4 1000 EPS
By Steve Larsen |
After renting a 4 passenger RZR in Utah earlier this year and riding with Maggie, Jean Kirby and Arthur Einstein, I returned home and instantly sold my two passenger RZR 800S and began shopping for a 4 passenger model. As much fun as my 2-person RZR riding experiences were, having four people along is going…
Continue Reading Innovation of the Month: William H. Harvey Hand Cleaner
By Steve Larsen |
Innovation of the Month William H Harvey, Master Plumber 15 oz. Power Scrub Hand Cleaner with Pumice By Steve Larsen First off, adding a sink to one’s garage has a fast payback. No kidding – one of the most useful garage upgrades you’ll ever make – I promise. While admiring the newly installed stainless steel…
Continue Reading Annette Birkman’s book is out
By Steve Larsen |
On a warm night early in 2009, Annette Birkmann stood in front of eighty or so riders at the BMW/Triumph dealership on Old Middlefield Way in Mountain View, California. Birkmann, a blond, Danish woman of average height and weight, with piercing blue eyes and a ready smile, had just arrived after spending a year riding…
Continue Reading Plast-aid: Plastic Repair Kit
By Steve Larsen |
Few articles since the publication of my JIS screwdriver review have caused as much sensation or were as fun to write at the one on Plast-aid. Article, Motorcycle Consumer News – April, 2014 (PDF) First off the product really works, and works far better than anything I’ve ever found for fixing plastic parts on motorcycles.…
Continue Reading Innovation of the Month: Pro MotorCar PrepPen
By Steve Larsen |
By: Steve Larsen Half a dozen years ago, or more, I acquired a PrepPen, although I’ve no idea how or why. It sat around untouched for a few months. One day when replacing the batteries on a rarely-used flashlight, I grabbed it to see if the PrepPen could remove the corrosion inside the flashlight. Presto!…
Continue Reading Any idea where I can find this clamp?
By Steve Larsen |
I’ve been looking all over for this clamp and can’t find it anywhere. If you can help me find it, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks! (UPDATE: The folks at Amazon.com came to the rescue with a similar clamp that works just great. Aluminum, so it does not rust like this one did.)
Continue Reading Responses to JIS Innovation of the Month
By Steve Larsen |
I wasn’t surprised to see Dave at MCN publish several Letters to the Editor about JIS screwdrivers, as I’d gotten half a dozen emails from people about the article as well. Here are the two that were published. Letters to Editor about JIS Screwdrivers. I WAS surprised to see that Dave loved the idea of…
Continue Reading You Gotta Get These: JIS Screwdrivers
By Steve Larsen |
Rather than taking my bike to a dealer for repairs I can’t handle myself, I prefer Oltman—he lets me help—stifling his snickers at my ignorance and ineptitude. This typically doubles or triples the time a repair would take at a real motorcycle repair shop. My last visit required some extensive disassembly. Unable to dislodge one rusted and corroded screw, I’d managed to strip a good part of its Phillips head. Oltman went to his tool box and came back with a different screwdriver saying, “try this.” This screwdriver fit snugly and the screw came right out. “That’s a JIS screwdriver,” Oltman told me...
Continue Reading Visiting Ducati in Bologna, Italy
By Steve Larsen |
A visit to the Ducati factory and museum followed by a ride on a favorite route of Ducati employees and testers.
Continue Reading Dakar Rally Article now available
By Steve Larsen |
My feature story on the Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile appears in the current issue of The Overland Journal. Some diligent friends have found the magazine at Barnes & Noble and at airport news stands. But many have told me they can’t find it anywhere. Not unexpected, this is a super high quality publication…
Continue Reading Don’t miss the Summer 2012 issue of the Overland Journal
By Steve Larsen |
Well, it’s finally arrived – the summer 2012 issue of the Overland Journal. One of its feature articles is my story on the Dakar Rally in Argentina and Chile. In theory it should be on newsstands and Barnes & Nobles and Books-a-million, but I’ve not had any luck finding it. If you want to see…
Continue Reading Dirt Riders do it best
By Steve Larsen |
Andy Norrie, a Staff Sergeant with the Toronto Police Service in Toronto, Canada recently wrote an article on motor officer training. He lists the six R’s of training as keys to reducing risk to officers: Recent, Relevant, Repetition, Realism, Review and Responsibility. What I liked about his article best was his strong argument for officers…
Continue Reading Test ride for Andy’s Lake Como trip
By Steve Larsen |
Andy is contemplating a MC ride in this area in the fall. Yesterday I checked it out. West out of Treviso to Trento, then north to Revo. West over passo del Tonale, then Colico at far north end of Lake Como, then down the east shoreline, bypass Milan, through Verona and back home to Treviso.…
Continue Reading Off to Italy
By Steve Larsen |
Maybe this year (2012) I will do a better job at keeping my blog updated. I sure hope so. Looking back and seeing that my last post was on the Dakar trip, I’m overwhelmed with what all has happened since. In short I completed the Dakar article and it will be coming out this summer.…
Continue Reading Innovation of the Month: Low cost garage helmet holder
By Steve Larsen |
By Steve Larsen You don’t have to be a committed motorcyclist for long before you begin to notice that motorcycle helmets tend to multiply in rough proportion to riding socks disappearing. This article will not explore the many reasons behind this phenomenon (e.g. breeding in dark garages), but if you send me your favorite theory,…
Continue Reading Dakar update
By Steve Larsen |
Cordoba, Argentina Dakar conclusion: I’ve just arrived back in Cordoba, Argentina for a couple of days of rest and a Malbec fueled recovery, before flying to Santiago on Monday afternoon, then overnight to Dallas and then on to Phoenix on Tuesday morning. It has been an amazing 13 days! The trip was difficult but exceptionally…
Continue Reading Dakar 2011 Update
By Steve Larsen |
After a 340 mi first day and a 471 second day, things are starting to heat up. I’m trying out the SPOT Satellite tracker. I’ve created a page (click here) so allow you to see where I am at any moment in time. From the page, you can view the terrain or go to Google…
Continue Reading Dakar 2011 begins
By Steve Larsen |
I arrived in Argentina yesterday for the start of what most off-road riders consider the ultimate test – the Dakar race. Have no illusions – I will be trailing and observing the race on a BMW 1200GS – not competing personally, although we will average over 300 miles per day across the Atacama desert, the…
Continue Reading Phoenix Police pick a new police motorcycle
By Steve Larsen |
For this story which ran in the December 2009 issue of Motorcycle Consumer News, I spend more time researching than any other story I’ve ever written. I reviewed three years of repair records (nearly 10,000 total), on over 240 police motorcycles. I talked with officers, instructors and mechanics. In the process, I was able to…
Continue Reading The absolute “right way” to change cooling fluid on a motorcycle
By Steve Larsen |
If you are the sort of motorcycle mechanic who does your own work because you know you can do a better job than most local shops, the uView 550000 is for you. One of the best reasons to live in Phoenix if you are a Goldwing owner is Stu Oltman. He’s the senior technical editor…
Continue Reading F4 Customs Speedglass Windshield
By Steve Larsen |
While on a ride in Turkey several years ago for RoadRunner Magazine I met Dan Moore, an accomplished entrepreneur from Cleveland. Dan’s an irrasible, irreverant, charming 70 year old with more potential for trouble and excitement than half a dozen 14 year old boys. He’s also managed to create more high-value businesses than anyone I’ve…
Continue Reading Death Valley article finished
By Steve Larsen |
Finishing an article on a Death Valley ride I contacted the woman I wrote about. Our group had met her briefly in Shoshone, CA. I called her to confirm what I’d remembered about our conversation. She sent me this photo of her riding the purple VFR which will figure in the article. Frequently her dog,…
Continue Reading Remembering Nick Givotovsky
By Steve Larsen |
We met in the fall of 1996 at a retreat outside Philly. Jerry Michalski had convinced Ester Dyson (his editor at Release 1.0 and producer of PC Forum at the time) to pull together a small group of people from diverse disciplines who had, in the past year, said or written something that had made…
Continue Reading Mogollon Rim Road
By Steve Larsen |
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…
Continue Reading Terrific review of a 1969 Lotus Elan
By Steve Larsen |
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…
Continue Reading Do these socks make my feet stink?
By Steve Larsen |
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.…
Continue Reading You should meet Annette Birkmann
By Steve Larsen |
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…
Continue Reading Find a great MC Training School
By Steve Larsen |
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…
Continue Reading So, what do you think?
By Steve Larsen |
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…
Continue Reading Take a survey – help a starving writer
By Steve Larsen |
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. Survey no longer available. 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!
Continue Reading It’s been a long time
By Steve Larsen |
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.…
Continue Reading Bob buys a wee-strom – loves it
By Steve Larsen |
This just in from my friend “Seattle Bob,” who purchased a new Suzuki V-Strom a week or so ago: … in other news – I have decided the V-Strom 650 (ABS) is the best motorcycle in existence, period. The only things that aren’t great about it: windshield (fixable with aftermarket Madstad bracket, I’m hoping –…
Continue Reading You don’t know how fast you can really go until you Crash. Right?
By Steve Larsen |
Keith Code just posted a piece on his web site about crashing. It’s good. He explores some (bad) conventional wisdom on crashing, e.g. the fallacy in the above headline and this one: “There are riders who have fallen and those that are going to fall.” (We’ve all heard that one, right?) More interesting to me…
Continue Reading Another convert
By Steve Larsen |
I just got off the phone with Brian Steel who’d called about his experience at Keith Code’s CA Superbike School. He loved riding the new Kawasaki ZX-6R but I think what he liked best was riding without having to worry about cars pulling out in front of him, trucks dropping stuff, speed limits or lousy…
Continue Reading Back from Washington State
By Steve Larsen |
“Seattle Bob” and his bride, Willo, planned the ultimate motorcycle ride for members of the American Flyers Motorcycle Club in Washington state. I arrived in Seattle on September 9 and picked up a Yamaha FJR1300 and began a most awesome experience, which will ultimately be documented for sure on the AFMC web site and hopefully…
Continue Reading BMW and Silk Road Trip
By Steve Larsen |
On my recent Washington State trip I met Roger Hansen. On a couple of occasions, we pulled Roger from his trusty (and beautiful) Harley and forced him to ride a couple of sportier bikes – a Honda ST100 and the Yamaha FJR1300, while at night filling him with stories of other dual-sport steeds and global…
Continue Reading Brazil Trip Report
By Steve Larsen |
The October issue of Motorcycle Consumer News contains my article on Brazil, so I figure it’s fair to make it available to you who watch this space. You’ll find the full-text PDF linked from the Published Motorcylce Articles section. I think the article will give you a good idea what it’s like traveling down there.…
Continue Reading Arthur and Beulah
By Steve Larsen |
Good friend and fellow-rider Arthur Einstein (see his comment on “Buy the Right Bike” post below) emailed to let me know he’d let his beloved Triumph go and had purchased the BMW 1200RT. Here is picture of the happy couple. Arthur and Beulah – July, 2006 You know how they say the second happiest day…
Continue Reading So, you want to ride?
By Steve Larsen |
Earlier today a friend in Oregon emailed me on some business stuff. At the end he said, “I really want to learn and then get a motorcycle. If you were advising someone, what would you suggest for the learning process + the bike to get? He’d ask another motorcyclist the same question, and forwarded that…
Continue Reading Buy the “right bike”
By Steve Larsen |
Earlier today I read Gabe Ets-Hokin’s article “It Ain’t the Tool: Revisited” on motorcycle.com. I dropped him a note telling him I thought it was a good article. He replied, “Of course – because your bike won.” I got thinking about it, because in a way he was right, I liked that these expert moto-journalists…
Continue Reading Back from Brazil
By Steve Larsen |
Midway through our product launch preparations at Krugle I heeded the call of Davis Bales of Brazil Moto Adventures and spent eight days riding with him on some of the best motorcycling roads in Brazil. It was a fabulous trip which I’ll cover soon in Motorcycle Consumer News. I also was acting as a “scout”…
Continue Reading Proud Dads
By Steve Larsen |
This weekend my wife Maggie and I went back to see our daughter graduate from Kenyon College in Ohio. What a kick! Many happy emotions – not the least being the end of college tuition payments and the chance she’ll get a job to support me in my old age. Kenyon is a terrific school…
Continue Reading CA Superbike School on new track
By Steve Larsen |
I just heard from Keith Code that Reno Fernley Raceway, about 20 miles outside of Reno, has added a super technical new track, known as the “top track”. Per Keith’s note, the new section is perfect for training, a little under 2 miles, lots of corners, lots of laps and it’s 50 feet wide! Reno…
Continue Reading Keeping in Tune
By Steve Larsen |
Spending a quick weekend here in Phoenix before heading back to California and the intensity of getting a new company off the ground, I took my ’02 Honda Goldwing and ’05 Suzuki V-Strom for rides. Ever since beginning a serious upgrade to my riding skills about ten years ago, I have an instructor always riding…
Continue Reading Product Report – Saxon Motorcycles
By Steve Larsen |
By Steve Larsen When MCN Editor-in-Chief Dave Searle called to check my interest on attending the Saxon Motorcycles 2006 launch event, I first wondered how many other writers had passed on the opportunity before he’d thought of calling me. My second thought was to wonder if he knew of my wish to understand choppers and…
Continue Reading Keith Code’s Latest Article
By Steve Larsen |
Earlier today I got an email from Keith Code pointing me to some of his latest thinking on riding (article no longer on the net). In addition to being one of the best motorcycle instructors on the planet, Keith thinks deeply about nearly all aspects of riding. This article comes out of his research and…
Continue Reading San Jose, CA Motorcycle Show
By Steve Larsen |
This morning I met a group of bay area bikers at Buck’s restaurant in Woodside, CA and after breakfast, headed down to San Jose for the International Motorcycle Show. I still don’t have a regular ride here in the bay area so I drove down. It was raining, lightly (on and off) so I almost…
Continue Reading Blogs versus Magazine Articles
By Steve Larsen |
Category: Motorcycle Blog December 16, 2005 What’s got me thinking today is the amount of time between some of my motorcycle experiences and when they’re seen in print. Versus what happens in the blogging world. For instance, a couple of weeks ago the January 2006 issue of Rider Magazine arrived on newsstands with my article…
Continue Reading Where’s a cop when you really need one?
By Steve Larsen |
…in which I take the Phoenix Police Officers Training course. All three parts of this story in one file
Continue Reading