Day 121 – Boquete, PA to Panama City, PA

Day 121 – Boquete, PA to Panama City, PA      12/20/10      Mileage: 311

Today was a transit day with a little over 300 miles of mostly super-slab down the Pan American Highway to Panama City. I spent several hours in the morning updating the blog and bouncing emails, so I got a late start and arrived late in the day and had to ride the last few miles at night…something I loath doing.

Some nice section of road coming out of the mountains before the Pan American super slab…

I think I like the new bridge better…

What to do when you’re grinding down 200 miles of interstate…dick around with the camera of course!

I’m doing 60 in the picture above…looks like I’m standing on the side of the road…

 The big news for the day however is that I found a solution to my rear shock problem…or more specifically, a solution found me! Ricor Racing Shocks, maker of high performance motorcycle shocks, has offered to “sponsor” my ride! I was speechless at the offer and it took me all of about 3 seconds to think that one over! So, Don from Ricor is sending me one of their high performance shocks and a set of “Intiminator” inertia valves for my front forks…for free.

Shameless plug:  www.ricorshocks.com

Out of the ashes of a big problem comes an opportunity to make my bike better than new! The KLR is an unsophisticated motorcycle and that goes for the suspension as well. Having the opportunity to not only solve my current problem but make the suspension perform much better than new is a huge bonus! It also could not have come at a better time as the worst (best?) roads of the trip will soon be under my wheels in the mountains of Peru and the Bolivian Altiplano. So a big thanks to Ricor for helping me out of a jam!! With that, it’s on to Colombia and South America!!!