One, Mr. Andrew Dalton, did not receive an efficient enough description when first introduced. Therefore let me please start from the beginning.

As we crossed into Costa Rica, we had no idea where to find Charlie, or his friend who we’d had yet to have met; a so called Andy Dalton.

Well, we sat down for some milkshakes at Denny’s near the San Jose International Airport, whipped out our wireless devices, and in no time at all, Tom was chatting with our previously facebook befriended friend, Andy Dalton.
The conversation went kind of like this,

Tom, “Hey man, where are you?”……. Andy, “Hey, we’re in the center of Alujuela, Hotel Los Vocanos” ….. Tom, “Ok.” …… Andy, “Lets meet at the McDonalds near the town center at 1pm.” ….. Tom, “Ok.”

So Tom and I left our air conditioned Denny’s dinning booths with plenty of time to spare, and headed to the McDonalds previous mentioned. Well, we were an hour early so we again pulled out our wifi toys, and surfed the wifi offered by McD’s.

Charlie and Andy never showed up and were 20 minutes late. Or as they would have you know, we never made it to the appropriate McDonalds and thus left them waiting for 20 minutes.

So, we wifi’ed them again, found there location, and we took off to meet them. And meet them we did, with one bike between them, which had a disassembled rear end, staying at a nice hotel with their shit spread everywhere. Turns out it was a lot of Charlie’s shit, though Andy did bring a Baby Taylor guitar.

And now for the good stuff. Charlie and Andy were headed to the Hamilton Inn & Suites near the airport where we just were. Andy was footing the bill do to some bankrolled credits at different companies. Andy offered to book us a room at the Hotel, an easy 900% over our budget, offer. We couldn’t refuse, as he didn’t let us, and that afternoon we were booked into the nicest room/bed I had slept on since I spent the night with Kristi at the Tulalip Inn for my friends’ wedding.

Mr. Andy Dalton was just getting started. Over s and popcorn Andy informed us that we would all be going to Jr. Ribs, a Texan bar and grill style restaurant located somewhere close in San Jose, and that his previously mentioned credits pile up was paying for it. And no matter what we saw on the menu, we were to order it if we wanted it. Whaaaaa???

And so the four of us went, and the four of us ate, and ate, and ate. And we ate 3 full racks of ribs, which each came complete with three side dishes, along with a 2 huge steaks, which also had 3 side dishes each, a platter of cheesy fries, and $50 dollars worth of scotch, lemonade and coke.

And the bill totaled $217, and Andy paid it! (His piled up credits did)

And then we went to bed and passed out in rapid succession, only to awake to; Complimentary breakfast!!! With sausage and eggs, and bagels, and fruit, and fresh juice, and waffles, and rice with beans, and coffee, and tea, and cereal, and yogurt, and more! Tom and I gorged in the morning, and again before it closed at 10am.

Mr. Andrew Dalton is a stand up son-of-a-bitch (a polite affectionate term in Aussie speak) and we're glad to have him around!

That morning Andy and I took off to locate, and acquire his motorcycle from the Freight Agent comspany that he was dealing with. I went along for the adventure, as well, being as being able to speak Spanish I thought I’d get out for the day. Well, instead we met with Jose (speaks GREAT English) and Jaime (who speaks little) and we had nothing to do but wait as they took care of business. Jose hung out with us as we shot the shit about motorcycles, travel, women, and everything else (is there much else?) while Jaime (Hi-May) aced the import process and drove us between buildings, offices, warehouses etc until after 7-8 hours of moving around, breakfast and lunch paid for by Jose/Jaime, we had a bike! Success!!!

First step, re-attach the handlebars, windscreen, front fender, hand guards, and attach the panniers and bags.
Second step, throw four hundred pounds of man on the bike and head for the gas station. Fill it to the top and spend nearly $30 at $6/gallon. Fix the tire pressure to 32psi in the front and rear, up from 18 and 20. :/
Third step, ride 2 up back to the Hotel and smoke a celebratory cigar with Andy. SUCCESS.

Well that was the beginning of Charlie’s demise however, as he got some sort of stomach bug that rendered him useless for about 36 hours. All night, and the next day he was out of commission, a trip to the pharmacy, antibiotics purchased, and back to the hotel room where Charlie’s room smells like sickness. Give him the antibiotics, and go to Andy’s room where the air is still clean.

We spent 3 nights at the Hampton Inn & Suites, and every morning we stuffed face with the free continental breakfasts. Damn they were good.

Tom and I also cleaned our entire motorcycles in that time. Our bikes haven’t had a good wash since we left Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico when we took a cruise on the beach. It was time.

We cleaned the chains in Kerosene and Commercial grade degreaser. Then we lubed them with chain lubrication and chain wax. The chains were slacking a bit (regrettably more then I should have allowed, as they weren’t given much thought) and we rightfully adjusted them to a better position. We lubed our rear axles, cleaned the sprockets, (I replaced my brake pads) and I replaced my rear main bearing seal as the little tiny spring in it had fallen out and been munched for some reason.

After 3 days of lazing around, picking up Andy’s bike, and doing the minor maintenances on our bikes, we were ready to hit the road (after the continental breakfast face stuffing) and so we did, and it nearly instantly turned from a humid stuffy day into a pissing downpour, and so we put in our waterproof liners and hit the road. And soon we were in the mountains, and for the first time this trip Tom and I crossed above 10,000ft elevation, the temperature dropped to 53* F, and we were all soaked and pretty cold.

A quick stop for a coffee/hot chocolate and we tossed our thermal liners in our coats, pulled out our “waterproof insulated” gloves, and hit the road again, up and over the mountains, and down to the coast. The road was the most treacherous that we’ve seen yet. The clouds, extremely dense fog, extremely wet conditions necessitated 25mph riding, and extreme concentration.

Chalk it up to Andy’s first day on his bike in over 80 days, his first real adventure riding, and his gusto, and he did well! We all stayed together, and found ourselves in Playa Dominical that night. It was quite the ride!
Playa Dominical had its moments but the next day we were on the road again. Headed for the Panamanian border, it took no more than 15 minutes before Andy and I were riding together, and Tom and Charlie were a bit ahead. Then, we lost them. It should be noted that I misheard Charlie when he said he was stopping at the first gas station that he saw. I heard, “I’m stopping at a gas station ahead,” ergo, Andy and I blew right by Tom and Charlie where they had stopped at the first gas station.

It happened that Andy’s sunglasses fell off his bike while on the road and I stopped to pick them up for him. That gave Tom and Charlie just enough time to get out of site, and for us to blow right by them as they watched. Well then.
Andy and I stuck to the plan, and hit the same border crossing that Charlie and Tom were meant to go to. We though, having not seen them along the way that they were ahead of us. Obviously we were mistaken. Charlie had the Map, and he also had the GPS. We just knew we were headed South, wanted to cross a certain border crossing into

Panama, and we new “San Vito” was somewhere in the mix of it all.

These are normal conditions for Tom and I, no worries on my part.

Well, Andy is only 2 days in and now found himself, map-less, GPS-less, and with basically no Spanish, and understandably a bit antsy. I reaffirm that this is absolutely no problem, and we can stop and ask for directions. Tom and Charlie will be on the same path, or doing something else. No need to worry about them, and they are most definitely not worrying about us.

Well, an hour and a bit or so later we found Tom and Charlie at the same border crossing we arrived at. So problem solved, and we’re all still soaking wet. Our exit of Costa Rica and entry into Panama costs us a whopping $16. $15 for a month of insurance, and $1 for quarantining our bikes, (they sprayed our wheels with a tank of fluid….)

About 5 minutes later, we were stopped, facing a road of nothing but mud and the terrible feeling that if we continued much further we were all going to crash, or as the Aussies call it “Stack It”

Well none of us stacked the bikes, but we turned around, asked for directions again, and took off down a different road. 45 minutes later we arrived in Volcan where we are now. Hanging out, looking for a Lavanderia to wash and dry our completely soaked riding gear, and just relaxing from the crappy cold riding weather that has beaten us down for the past 2 days.

Panama at first glance is a hand and fist above Costa Rica in regards to scenery, price tags, standard of living, and the overall “feeling in the air”.

The roads are nicer, the food is better, the hostels cheaper, and the nicer. We’re happy to be out of Costa Rica and in Panama. It’s been a good day doing nothing, though, of course we’re always on the move regardless of where we are.

The next step is to head to Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean, and in no time at all we’ll be on the Stahlratte crossing over to Colombia through the San Blas Islands.

Onward!

--Alex

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

Today, through the constant rain, we bought front and rear wheel bearings for our bikes. We replaced Tom's rear bearings and my front bearings. We replaced Tom's front sprocket, and re-lubed his chain as it was squeaking a bit. It's due for replacement soon. I'll change mine soon as well.

We weren't able to find new seals for our bearings, but the old ones will be serviceable until we can locate replacements for them. Until then, we're doing well with them.

My front tire has been giving me quite the wobble/shimmy type of bullshit in slow speed corners, at/or under 30mph. Any speed above 30mph and no problems exist.

I have experienced this problem off and on since about the 4000th mile of the trip, and having ridden nearly 5k more miles since, it never really presented a problem. Now, entering more mountainous terrain, with wet conditions, slow speed corners, and a progressively worse tire condition, it has begun to bother me. The handle bar visibly shakes in both left and right hand corners at speeds under 30mph. If I release one hand, the problem exasperates itself and is uncomfortably annoying.

Since having replaced my front wheel bearings, I have yet to test ride the bike as it has grown dark and the incessant rain has yet to let up. Tomorrow will be the first test.

Furthermore I have noticed an uneven wear pattern on my front tire, inconsistent with any other front tire on the 4-5 motorcycles that I have been traveling with. Charlie, Tom, Patrick, Andy, and the motorcycle mechanic that facilitated the removal and insertion of my wheel bearings have noticed the same uneven pattern that exists.

It was the motorcycle mechanics agreement with my suspicion that leads me to believe that my wobble exists due to the weird wear pattern.

I will know tomorrow if the wheel bearings were the issue or not.

Provided the problem isn't solved by the new wheel bearings, I am soon to have a new tire put on within the next few hundred miles. If that is the solution, the question still remains why the uneven tire wear has happened.

I am running a Mefo Explorer front tire as of right now, and am thinking about changing to a MT90 front, or keep the same Mefo as the lifespan is incredible, and it has lasted at least 9,000 miles plus an addition 2-4k miles that it had on it before I left.

OR. My tire is out of alignment. Keep in mind that the wheels and spokes are not the originals as on Tom's bike, and are second hand wheels and spokes that were put on in Baja, Mexico following my crash. Should the spokes be out of tune, or the wheel unbalanced, that could be the cause of my issue as well.

It remains to be seen.

Any suggestions otherwise?

--Alex

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

What can I say guys, what a fantastic journey your having and I have enjoyed every minute of reading this thread. Feels like I have done the journey with you. I am planning on doing my trip in 2014 with a friend of mine. Coming from England. Canada to Buenos Aires. I hope it is as good as yours is going.

Keep the updates coming. look forward to reading the next update.

I'm not a mechanic but sounds like something isn't alligned properly.

Or the person that owned that wheel and tyre before you just liked going round roundabouts

Could you ask Charlie and Andy how they have got on with there bikes as we're doing it on xt660z tenere's too.

Safe riding all,

Pete