A Harley-Davidson is the dream of many a middle-aged, leather-loving, motorbike enthusiast, and Spaniards, especially, are in love with the US machine. But now thousands of the bikes are being ordered off the road, or running the risk of being impounded by the police.
Up to 5,000 Harleys could be brought to a halt following detection of a scam used by importers. Harleys bought in the US and shipped to Spain by some importers have reportedly then been sent to privately owned MOT centres that have been willing to turn a blind eye to the legal requirements for vehicles in Spain.
The police crackdown has infuriated Harley owners who, having paid upwards of €16,000 (£14,000) for their machines, claim the company is trying to stop secondhand imports so as to sell more motorbikes through its official dealers.
Harley-Davidson has vigorously denied any such involvement. "The police have detected that some MOT centres are giving imported secondhand Harleys a bill of health when they have not been adapted to Spanish norms," said a company spokesman. "It has nothing to do with us."
Some importers stress they carefully follow the guidelines. "We change everything that has to be changed and then take the bike to the MOT to make it legal to ride," said Alfonso Martínez, a Madrid importer. "I can imagine that one or two bikes get through without being properly adapted – but not this many."
A group of owners, unable now to ride their bikes, have formed an association and hired a lawyer. Now the association and Harley are arguing over whether the secondhand imported bikes are different to, or the same as, those brought in by the company.
"We understand that some people like to get bikes from the US because they think of them as more authentic," said the company spokesman. "There is no problem with imported secondhand bikes as a whole, only with illegal ones."
Spain is one of the top markets in Europe for Harleys, which have lost much of the biker gang image they first acquired after the Hollister riot which occurred during a motorbike rally in California in July 1947.
Owners have also moved on from the days of the 1969 classic road movie Easy Rider, which starred Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, and are now mostly aged in their forties or older. "In the world of leisure our competition is motorboats and golf," Rob Lindley, managing director of Harley-Davidson Europe, told El País newspaper in a recent interview.
But younger Spaniards are also now showing an interest. Barcelona has become the European city where most new Harleys are sold.
