Tires in Nicaragua

Nov 26, 2013
We crossed into Nicaragua and spent the night in Ocotal about 20km from the border.

Border costs were approx:
$12 per person
$1 random fee per person.
$12 for insurance per person.

Trevor took care of this crossing while Kyle watched the bikes and chatted with the Nicaragua tourist promotion people.  Kyle ended up getting a free map out of the deal!  Borders go in the same general steps.
- Exit Stamp on passport (person)
- Exit documents for bike
- Entrance stamp on passport
- Entrance documents for bike
- Insurance or fumigation as required.

Importing the motos took longer than usual as the lady entered Trevor's license number on Kyle's documents.   Pretty straight forward despite the chaos.

Nov 27, 2013
We had shoved 5 plugs in Trevor's front tire and they came out again about 2km from Ocotal.  Fixing Trevor's tire was top priority on the morning of the 27th.   We had two ideas what to do... find a new front tire or find a tube and remove the tubliss system.  We found a shop easy enough and found a front tube.  Then we started asked about a tire out of curiosity.  Kyle headed off on foot with one of the employees.  5 motos shops later he found a 2.75" -21 front shinko 244.  A little bit narrower but basically the same tire we were running before.

Yes, there is a tire shop under that tree.

We mounted it and left the tubliss system in place. We always gather quite the crowd.  In this case the shop wanted to help mount the tire.  We had a tough time explaining that Tubliss system is "new technology" and you cannot use a tire machine on it.

We spent the night in the outskirts of Managua (the Capital).  We needed a break so we stopped early. Kyle got the bikes washed/detailed about a block away from the hotel for $2 each.

As always drawing a crowd.... Trevor's police friend.

Unrelated to the above photo... We were waved over by two different police officers trying to stop us today...  For speeding or crossing a solid line.  We are not sure as we didn't stop to find out we just wave back and hit the gas..   They did try a lot harder than the Guatemalan police but still not enough to give chase.  The police here are very uncoordinated.  20km down the road we would cross through a police checkpoint without arising any suspicion.  We might have gotten different treatment if we were locals.