David Panama

Well, we arrived in David early (around 2) and beat the rain!  But we did have some bike problems.   Since getting the bikes fully serviced so that they were ready to go, we have had some issues.  Karen's bike loses power when she tries to accelerate.  I changed the air filter, checked the fuel vent and added fuel injector cleaner to try to fix it, but it was still losing power today, worse than ever and it does it more when it is hot.  Jada's bike was not starting, so we push started it a few times today.

We booked into the hotel and asked where to take the bikes to have them looked at and were told to go to Robinsons, so we did.  It was a tire shop, but I thought they might have a good bike mechanic there.  We told a guy our problems and he called someone to come to the shop who spoke English better, so we waited.  The guy came and we explained our issues.  I wish the first guy would have let me explain, but when I asked if he spoke English it scared him off.  I am sure I could have explained it in Spanish well enough.  So we waited some more while the translator spoke to the busy mechanic.  Then we waited some more and couldn't see the guys dealing with us.  Finally after about 45 minutes in the shop, they said that they didn't have any bike mechanics and that I should go somewhere else.  We got directions to a bike shop. 

We pulled into a very little Honda bike shop and within 30 seconds a mechanic was there to talk to us and he spoke English!  He asked the problems and immediately asked if he could check the battery on Jada's bike.  He checked it (it was at 9.2V - low), so he put it on charge to see if it was the battery or if not then probably the alternator.  I was hoping for a bad battery, but the battery was good after a charge.  Batteries are easier to find than alternators.  When the battery was charged, he started the bike and checked the alternator output, which was low, but stil giving some juice.  So he disconnected the headlight (we don't drive in the dark anyways) to help keep the battery charged.  Hopefully we can find an alternator somewhere along the road.  While the battery was charging he looked at Karen's bike.

We talked over the issue and what I had done and he asked a lot of questions.  In the end he said that it was probably one of three things, fuel pump, fuel filter or fuel pressure valve.  Fortunately all three come as a one piece unit, so changing that out should fix the problem whatever it is. Unfortunately the chances of getting one in David is zero.  Karen can drive it, but we might have to take more breaks than we normally like too.  Hopefully we find a Kawasaki dealer in Costa Rica, maybe in San Jose.

Not the best start to our journey, but at least we got closer to home today.

Enjoy the journey,

Stew.