DAMN Riders - No rules, Just ride!

I just got back from a family vacation in Costa Rica. There were 7 of us. We rented a big 12 person van. JMC, 5 speed diesel. Im pretty sure it was a Chinese copy of an older Ford Transit.
We didnt find out our rental was a manual trans till we were getting in it. Not a big deal. All of us adults have owned manuals in the past. But I was thinking of the younger generation and how screwed they would have been.
Since my normal vehicle is a huge van I was quickly nominated to be the driver. At first I was pretty disappointed with the big van or “buseta”. The gearing was very low and it felt pretty utilitarian at best. However, the roads are pretty slow going. Most of the well paved and “fast” roads had a speed limit of 80 kmph. We were in the mountains quite a bit. The roads are very narrow and we spent a lot of time in 2-3 gear. Very slow. Massive potholes in the pavement and some of the unpaved roads were just barely better than an offroad trail.
I grew to like nuestra buseta, it worked pretty well for the roads/conditions.


Not surprisingly, small motorcycles were very popular. I was surprised at how many air cooled 125 4T bikes I saw. Basically dualsport or “doble proposito” bikes like Honda XR150s or Kawasaki KLX140s.

You can see lots of drum brakes in the rear

Look at this bike. Im pretty sure this is a copy of an old 80’s Jap bike built by a Chinese brand

These small bikes are good basic, cheap transport.

Delivery bikes were very common. Riders wore huge boxy backpacks or had a large top box.
This is a pretty professional set up. Yamaha 125

I saw a few bikes with just a humongous icechest/cooler mounted on the back.

Walking around in Quepos I did stop at a store selling large appliances and mattresses. They also had bikes for sale out front.
This was their premiere bike for sale. A big 250.
Air cooled, kickstart, (I think there was a magic button too), and disk brakes front/rear.
Was a little around $2100 American. Not sure how much extra fees would be involved in actual purchase.

I think this was one of my faves I spotted.

I really would have liked to rent a bike and head off to explore or what not for a few days. But it was a family trip and I was already pretty broke from being on vacation anyway… so I didnt.


While doing research for this trip I did find a few companies that offer dirtbike tours. Late model euro 2T or 4T and they take you through the jungles and up to the volcanic mountains etc…
Maybe another time

Nice vacation Phil

Uncle Sam gave me a three year vacation to Panama back in the 80's. Everyone was riding scooters at that time. Same big boxes on the back.

Stick diesel van......yes please.

That sounds like a real bucket list trip. Never been there but I've heard so many good things about Costa Rica. Did you take any surfing lessons?