Panama Canal Ride - Redux

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#1
Back in December of 2018 I was planning on riding to the Panama Canal from Panama City, FL but I was convinced by the US Embassy in Nicaragua that it was just not a good time to ride through Nicaragua at the time due to unrest. So, I rode from Fort Lauderdale, FL to southern Mexico and turned around and back to Fort Lauderdale with a friend, Dan.

It's time to try this ride again. Sometime in 2022 I going to attempt to ride to the Panama Canal and back. I have been wanting to do this ride for a long time and I ain't getting any younger. I put together a webpage with a lot of the information about my ride back in 2018. I have updated the webpage with a lot more information and details about my plan including country requirements, country specific fees, roads I am planning on riding on, border crossings and other good information.

This ride is going to be a long distance endurance ride and I will not be doing any sightseeing other than at the Panama Canal. It is around 8,400 miles round trip with 3,000 of those miles in the US. I am planning on completing the ride in 9 days. My goal is to ride to the Panama Canal and take a photo and ride my ass back.

If anyone is interested in maybe riding with me let me know but please understand I do not know when just yet and I am not going to be taking my time on this ride. I am going to spend the night in Panama City before starting my ride back. If you are interested read the ride planning and details webpage as it has ride timings and other information.

Here is a link to the webpage with the ride planning and details.

http://www.gregrice.com/rides/panamacity-II.html
 

Marc11

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#2
Back in December of 2018 I was planning on riding to the Panama Canal from Panama City, FL but I was convinced by the US Embassy in Nicaragua that it was just not a good time to ride through Nicaragua at the time due to unrest. So, I rode from Fort Lauderdale, FL to southern Mexico and turned around and back to Fort Lauderdale with a friend, Dan.

It's time to try this ride again. Sometime in 2022 I going to attempt to ride to the Panama Canal and back. I have been wanting to do this ride for a long time and I ain't getting any younger. I put together a webpage with a lot of the information about my ride back in 2018. I have updated the webpage with a lot more information and details about my plan including country requirements, country specific fees, roads I am planning on riding on, border crossings and other good information.

This ride is going to be a long distance endurance ride and I will not be doing any sightseeing other than at the Panama Canal. It is around 8,400 miles round trip with 3,000 of those miles in the US. I am planning on completing the ride in 9 days. My goal is to ride to the Panama Canal and take a photo and ride my ass back.

If anyone is interested in maybe riding with me let me know but please understand I do not know when just yet and I am not going to be taking my time on this ride. I am going to spend the night in Panama City before starting my ride back. If you are interested read the ride planning and details webpage as it has ride timings and other information.

Here is a link to the webpage with the ride planning and details.

http://www.gregrice.com/rides/panamacity-II.html
Color me jealous Greg, I'd be open to joining if the timing works out. I'm good for 500-600 miles between fuel stops, ass, mind and fuel.
 

MotoToph

Mototoph
Premier Member
#3
Try and get a tour of the canal. If they have those. I've been through it a few times on Navy Destroyers to and from drug hunting operations. It's pretty darn impressive!
 

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#4
Try and get a tour of the canal. If they have those. I've been through it a few times on Navy Destroyers to and from drug hunting operations. It's pretty darn impressive!
I did the canal tour a few years back when we there on a cruise ship. It was pretty cool. One of the reasons I want to now ride there by motorcycle.

I also was in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica for work back in the day. It was when tanks and machine gun nest circled the airport in Managua. ;)
 

EricV

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#5
Watch out for unmarked topes and good luck. Night riding in some of those areas is not for the faint of heart. Some of those topes will eat a front wheel in short order when hit at speed.
 

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#6
Watch out for unmarked topes and good luck. Night riding in some of those areas is not for the faint of heart. Some of those topes will eat a front wheel in short order when hit at speed.
Thanks, Eric, for the reminder. When I rode to Mexico a couple years ago, I was riding my 2018 Gold Wing with a oversized rear tire to get more ground clearance. We were riding through a town and I was kind of looking out for topes, but one snuck up on me and I was moving along with no care in the world. That Gold Wing got a little air on that tope and my a$$ got puckered. :oops:
 

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#7
The time may have come for me to set a date for this ride. My wife is going to be out of the country April 11 to April 27, so I will have a kitchen pass for that timeframe, and I have time off from work to be able to attempt this ride. Of course, I could go to Vegas for 10 days or so or find some other ride to do.

I have a couple friends riding now in Guatemala after riding through Mexico and they have been providing me with updated information.

I have made many additions to my ride planning webpage with a lot more information and updated route.

http://www.gregrice.com/rides/panamacity-II.html
 

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#9
If anyone is interested in attempting the ride to the Panama Canal let me know. I am planning on Starting on April 13 at Eagle Pass, TX and taking around 3 days to ride to the Panama Canal spend the night and then take 3 days to ride back to Eagle Pass, TX.

This is going to be an ENDURANCE ride and hopefully the first SS1000 in Central America.

You must be vaccinated to cross the borders.

I am going to be riding HARD on this ride so I would expect the same of anyone else who would be riding with me.

You need to have a reliable motorcycle that will not need any maintenance for the 5,000+ miles ride.

You can email me at [email protected]
 

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#10
For my ride back in 2018 to southern Mexico I registered with a US State Department program about my travel outside the country. I added this information to my Panama Canal ride webpage that explains how registering with the US State Department for planned travel outside the country so they can provide information and potential assistance if needed. The program is called STEP, US State Department Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. This is a website that allows you to register to provide your contact information and then list the countries you will be traveling to and any other information about your travels that may help.

I include that I am riding by motorcycle and a link to my Spotwalla tracking.
 

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#11
Another thing I did for my ride in 2018 and this ride is to upgrade my MedJet Assist program to MedJet Horizon, link below. This adds a lot more services that MedJet will do including supposedly send in a rescue team or pay a ransom up to $50,000. It cost me $100 to upgrade my MedJet services.

If you are traveling to places that may be a little iffy and already have MedJet you may want to take a look at this.

https://medjetassist.com/medjethorizon

I put all of this information on my Panama Canal ride webpage.
 

igneouss

Premier Member
#12
To add a bit about STEP: I have extensive experience in remote and sometimes 'less friendly' countries. STEP is the first thing you do. Once enrolled you get near real time updates about safety/security related issues in country directly from the emabasy. STEP does not replace good sense but it helps get you 'tuned in' to local/regional issues as well.
 

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#14
We have picked a start date for our ride to the Panama Canal and thanks to Mike Kneebone we are going to add riding to the end of the Pan American Highway and the start of the Darien Gap. We are also going to try and ride into Belize and El Salvador so we can say we rode in all of the Central American countries.

We are going to attempt the first Central American SS1000 on this ride!

We will be starting on April 13, 2022, from Eagle Pass, TX.

I updated the ride webpage with a lot of new information so you may want to check it out.

https://www.gregrice.com/rides/panamacity-II.html
 

Greg Rice

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#17
Today ( 5:00 PM ) I am finally leaving for my ride to the Panama Canal and the end of the road at the Darien Gap. My riding partner, Mike Bobbitt, has already started making his way to Eagle Pass, TX where we will meet up tomorrow afternoon.

We are planning on crossing the Mexico border Wednesday April 13 in the morning and riding quickly to Panama, we hope. :)

Here is a link to the ride webpage again that has mine and Mike's Spotwalla tracking along with our planned route and countries we plan to ride through.

I also have a weather webpage I created for weather along our route. The link to it is below.

Ride Information
https://www.gregrice.com/rides/panamacity-II.html

Weather
http://www.gregrice.com/panama/Panama-Ride-Weather.html

Spotwalla - Greg
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/396c-65680-0077/view

Spotwalla - Mike
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/b742-e11311b-21fc/view
 

BigLew55

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#19
He posted on Farcebook that he was having electrical issues, suspected ezcan issue. He ran back to the barn to address.