The real event was hitting a pothole on the transisthmian highway. It had a sharp lip and was effectively bottomless- I tried to avoid it, but there were too many.

The jar from the pothole was massive. I was pretty sure something was damaged, so I slowed down and inspected it. Yep, it flattened the rear tire. It didn't take too long to find the cause- the rim was dented inwards- about 3/4 inch on one side, maybe half that on the other. There's no way the tire would inflate, because the rim couldn't seat on that.

We were in the middle of the jungle. There was a fair amount of traffic coming by, but hardly anyone would stop. We decided the best thing to do would be to take the bike to a repair shop, so we tried to flag down any pickup truck that would stop for us.

That ended up being next to impossible- we waited for over an hour, in the pouring tropical rain. A car or two stopped, but we didn't know what good it would do to go with them- do we leave the bike? How do we find a truck in another location?

Finally a fellow in a large SUV with a trailer stopped. It was a tiny utility trailer, but we managed to drag the bike up onto it. That was quite difficult- we set one of the cases down as a ramp, then Tamara and our friend lifted the bike while I gave it some power. Once we got it into the trailer, we had to rotate it diagonally across the trailer, then lay it down, because the trailer was too short otherwise.

He took us about 20 miles to a tire repair shop. We passed quite a few, so I was confused why he kept going. Finally we got to the shop he wanted to stop at. I understood later, when he loaded a huge tractor tire into the trailer. Makes sense!

Anyhow, at the tire shop, we quickly pulled the cases, then put one underneath the bike so the rear tire was off the ground. We then pulled the axle and removed the rear tire. The guy at the tire shop set the rim on the ground, then grabbed his large, homemade, sledgehammer.

Now, I wouldn't normally beat on a cast rim with a sledgehammer. It just isn't a bright idea. However, what are the other options? Weld a fillet across the dent? Not really.

So, three of us held the rim down, and Mr. Tire Guy pounded the massive dents out of the rim. I was glad the ground was dirt/gravel, because it absorbed the hard hits that came through the rim.

After about 30 minutes, we were done, the tire was mounted, and we were ready to go. Our trailer friend wouldn't accept money, so we paid the tire guy his $2 (yes, two dollars), plus a $1 tip, then Tamara snuck a $20 on the dashboard of our friend's SUV.

We finished getting suited up, then hopped on the bike and were about to leave (we had forgotten to connect the chain, so it took an extra minute). In the meantime our SUV friend came back and wouldn't accept the money. I argued that it was for his family, but he wouldn't accept it. So, we gave him a handshake and gratitude and went on our way.