The Tire

We headed back to Granada, for some great adobe oven pizza on the main strip and to pick up our long awaited tire.
KLR´s use 17 inch tires and all bikes here are 18. So finding a tire here would have been really really difficult if even possible. A friend in Denver bought a tire and two friends brought it down for us in a checked bag on their trip to Nicaragua. Thank you awsome people! They left it at the hotel oasis in Granda and we picked it up about 2.5 weeks later.
We didnt really need it at the moment. We have altered our plans of going to the moskito coast unfortuanately, due to heavy rains and the redirections taken in Honduras, now it was a 24 hour out and back instead of a loop. We also got hung up for 3 days dealing with our passport issue entering Nicaragua. So we just decided to enjoy the time we have and not push it on the weather and rush our trip. After one day of rainy dirt road riding in Honduras, we saw how bad the conditions can get and how big the rivers can get.
At the beginning, Steve bought a good tire that would last the whole trip but that tire had to be retired in Texas before we left because the bead broke. So we got a tire the next day and off we went with a run of the mill 50/50 knobby tire. it was excellent for all of those Honduras roads that kicked our ass but where the KLR rocked. But Steve didnt figure it would last after a couple weeks in the moskito so our friends brought a replacement.
Even though our tire probably had at least another 600 miles on it, Steve was ready for a new tire that would roll better on the pavement we were heading into for most of the way back. Since every one down in the neck of the woods rides tires till they are paper thin and smooth, we figured changing this tire would be a problem with lots of scoffs from people thinking we were crazy. Since we had no way to prop the bike up we brought it to the best looking mechanic/ tire shop around and paid $1.60 to have it changed. The mechanic just did his job quickly and didnt say a thing about trashing a new-to-central-america-tire.
But now we are off - on a Avon gripster. not as good on those muddy roads we may come across but great on dry gravel and smoother for the paved roads we have ahead.
we put 3,768 miles on the first tire.