Hogs in Havana: Harley aficionados keep American classics on Cuban roads

AFP/Yahoo ^ | 1/22/07 | Patrick Moser

[martin_fierro]

A group of Cuban Harley-lovers, known here as "Harlistas," waits for friends on a Havana street, 20 January 2007. Unable to get original parts because of a 45-year-old US embargo, Harley-Davidson aficionados resort to ingenuity and Soviet truck parts to keep the decades-old US classics on Cuban roads.(AFP/File/Adalberto Roque)

[martin_fierro]

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[Tijeras_Slim]

Ciclos dispensadores de aceite

[martin_fierro]

You get your very own PING, ya Drama Queen.

[HOTTIEBOY]

Unable to get original parts because of a 45-year-old US embargo,

The 45 year old parts that they have left over should bolt up just fine.

[Fierce Allegiance]

I'll bet they are pissed the can't get the "Officially Licensed Hardley Gear". They'd have 10 times as many members, and the same amount of bikes, just like here.

[archy]

Harley-Davidson aficionados resort to ingenuity and Soviet truck parts to keep the decades-old US classics on Cuban roads

I'd reckon! That's a UL or ULH flathead 74 or 80-inch engine in that rigid-frame Hog with the springer front forks.

The *old school* bike builders must be drooling.

[absolootezer0]

can't they get their parts from japan, like the american harley riders do?

[Fierce Allegiance]

ROFL!

[HOTTIEBOY]

BWAHHAHAHA

[ctsv]

I would guess we sell Harley parts to Mexico. Why can't Cubans buy them from Mexico? Or is just that they don't have cash due to the socialist paradise they live in, and it has nothing to do with the embargo?

[absolootezer0]

[archy]

But Harlista legend has it that as many of 100 of the motorcycles, once used by dictator Fulgencio Batista's police force, were buried decades ago and are waiting to be discovered.

"It could be true, we don't know," says Morales, who rides a 1950 Panhead with a sidecar rebuilt over a Soviet chassis to resemble the original three-wheeler

And I don't know either, though I was around there at the time [at about 10 years old] and remember the big Cuban cop bikes.

But I'd rather go hunting for vintage iron in Argentina, where former dictator Juan Peron had the excellent taste and class to mount his military and police riders on some 800 Vincents imported by the Argentines circa 1950. It's only been about 15 years since the Argentine government allowed reexport of those machines, considering them *national treasures*- which they indeed are.

[HOTTIEBOY]

"RIDE TO LIVE ~ LIVE TO RIDE ~ HD MADE IN AMERICA"
"BUY AMERICAN IRON"

Bumper stickers on the back of a Toyota Camry.

[absolootezer0]

well.. kinda makes sense, toyota is getting to be more american made than gm or ford. :)

[Fierce Allegiance]

I'd bet a camry is more American parts than an HD.

[HOTTIEBOY]

I'd bet a camry is more American parts than an HD.

I bet it will go faster too.
And handle better.
And brake better.
They weigh about the same, though.

[Fierce Allegiance]

But, the HD is WAY louder, so it must be better, right?

[woofie]

Thanks for the info, someday Im goin down there lookin

[HOTTIEBOY]

Now you are catching on.

Anyone with a checkbook can buy a $19,000 badass image.

So if you break it down, that would be:


Bike: $4000
Store-bought image: $15,000

---

$19,000