Author: Clif & Susan
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A Clutch Of Problems
The clutch keeps slipping through Honduras and El Salvador until the San Salvador BMW garage — where service manager Fernando waits 90 minutes past closing, in the dark, just to hand the bike back fixed.
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Nightmare In Nicaragua 5
Susan faints on the back of the bike at 55mph on the Nicaraguan highway — a one-armed roadside rescue, a stripped-off pair of padded shorts among the leaves, and five attempts to get her back on before Leon.
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Nightmare In Nicaragua 4
Josias fixes the clutch and they’re back on the road to Leon — until 40C heat with no shade turns into something worse than the usual complaints, and Susan’s head starts thumping against Clif’s back at 55mph.
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Nightmare In Nicaragua 3
Eight days stuck in Managua waiting on clutch parts shipped from Connecticut via Miami — and the moment the rebuilt bike finally rolls back in, it’s clear the clutch is slipping all over again.
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Nightmare In Nicaragua 2
The bike, its only key, and $40 for tools all handed over to a stranger working out of his grandmother’s living room in a Managua backstreet — and now there’s nothing to do but wait for a WhatsApp in the morning.
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Nightmare In Nicaragua
A dead clutch on a fast Nicaraguan carriageway, a reverse-gear-free bike, and a three-year-old Facebook photo of a mechanic named Josias — whose name, Clif discovers, means ‘God helps’ in Hebrew.
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The Master Massager
Hand-massaging a failing clutch through Managua traffic works right up until a hill outside the city — where the bike finally gives up completely, and Nightmare In Nicaragua begins.
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Beer & Biodiversity
Beer, a live volcano, and a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, before the clutch starts overheating on the way out of the mountains and a rough border crossing lands them in Nicaragua.